Italian textile industry leads economic recovery

Italian financial magazine “BUSINESSPEOPLE” reported on February 5 that the Italian Fashion Industry Research Center said that the Italian textile industry ushered in a recovery in 2014, with sales exceeding 8 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%; exports increased by 3.3%, the largest increase The biggest one is the U.S. market. Benefiting from the strong U.S. dollar, exports to the U.S. increased by 10%; however, exports to China fell by 10% and exports to Hong Kong fell by 11.9%. Despite the sharp decline in Italian textile product exports to China, China is still the second largest market for Italian product exports. Growth in the textile industry was attributed to rising domestic demand (+4.4%), with all textile sectors expanding, with woolen textile products accounting for 40% of total sales.
The research center also said that Italy’s fabric trade surplus reached 2.4 billion euros, accounting for 25% of the total trade surplus of the entire textile and apparel industry, although its sales accounted for only 15.3% of total sales.