Knitwear exporters feel the heat of rising rupee

Tirupur (TN), Knitwear exporters have already started feeling the pinch of rupee appreciation, as they registered a 10 per cent fall in growth so far this fiscal, against the usual 15-18 per cent rise in annual growth. "There is a shortfall of 10 per cent and if the trend continues, it will be very difficult to reach Rs 10,000 crore exports, against over Rs 11,000 crore last fiscal," Tirupur Exporters Association President A Shaktivel told reporters here last night.

Rupee appreciation has had an adverse effect not only on exports, but also on employment. Nearly 7,000 people have already lost or left their jobs, on lack of new orders from July last, Shaktivel said.

Due to the weak order position, compared to other years when there are 7-8 months pending orders, there was the possibility of about 50,000 people losing jobs by March 2008, he claimed.

Moreover, exporters were also not going in for expansion, because buyers wanted garments at cheaper rates, which they were getting from Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries, Shaktivel said.

Appealing to the Government to intervene immediately and bail out the industry and exporters, he said the Centre should bring down bank interest rates to six per cent, discourage Foreign Investments and promote only FDIs.

Nearly 76 per cent of India's exports were in dollar, of which garments contribute a major share. The government should take some steps to weaken rupee at least marginally as was done some time ago, Shaktivel said. PTI