Textile exports up 5.55pc to $3.379bn in July and August, cotton yarn up 34.8pc

Pakistan's textile and clothing exports were $3.379 billion in July and August 2026, up 5.55 per cent on the $3.202 billion shipped in the same two months of 2025. The figures come from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics monthly advance release on foreign trade, published on 19 September.

August on its own was $1.565 billion, down 13.68 per cent from July's $1.814 billion, and up 2.77 per cent on August 2025.

Where the growth came from

Two things stand out.

Ready-made garments up 13.59 per cent is the number that matters most. Garments are the highest value added part of the chain. Every dollar of garment exports carries more Pakistani labour, and more Pakistani jobs, than a dollar of yarn.

Cotton yarn up 34.80 per cent cuts the other way. Yarn is raw material. Exporting it means selling the cheap end and importing the expensive end back. A 34.8 per cent jump in yarn exports alongside a flat bedwear number is not the mix the sector says it wants.

Bedwear fell 0.31 per cent, the only category in the red.

The August drop

A 13.68 per cent fall from July to August reads worse than it is. Textile shipments are seasonal and lumpy: buyers place autumn and winter orders on a calendar, and a single month's number swings on when containers clear the port. The year on year comparison, up 2.77 per cent for August, is the honest read.

What is riding on these numbers

Textiles are roughly half of Pakistan's export earnings, and export earnings are what pays for imported oil and keeps the rupee where it is. The rupee is at Rs 277.42 to the dollar and SBP reserves hit a record $21.39 billion this week, both helped by exports and remittances.

Pakistan also cleared its fifth EU GSP+ review this week and must reapply by 31 December 2028. GSP+ gives Pakistani textiles duty free access to the European Union and is conditional on 27 international conventions. It is the single largest policy factor behind the knitwear and garments numbers above.

The costs the sector is watching

Energy. CPPA has asked NEPRA for Rs 1.73 per unit more under the August fuel charges adjustment, a hearing set for 29 September, which would take Rs 29.5 billion from consumers including industry. Textile mills in Faisalabad and Karachi run on that tariff.

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