New Delhi: Easing of lockdown restrictions by different states would help apparel exports catch up fast and surpass the pre-Covid levels soon, AEPC said on Saturday.
Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman A Sakthivel said that while the overall global demand has remained buoyant, the lockdowns in different parts of the country had kept factories in partial shutdown.
With decline in daily cases of infection and resumption of economic activities, India is now set to achieve healthy exports growth, he said.
"With the reopening of the economy, apparel exports are likely to catch up fast and surpass the pre-Covid levels soon. India's economic recovery is likely to be led by exports till domestic demand picks up. And, leading the pack of exporters will be the MSMEs, as exports need personalised management," Sakthivel said.
Earlier, a report had stated that full recovery for Indian apparel players is likely to be delayed to 2022-23 due to the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic cases.
Icra Ratings expects the full recovery for Indian apparel players to be prolonged and pushed back to the financial year 2023 amid rising COVID cases in India and some of the key export markets.
Their business performance in the financial year 2022, however, is expected to be better than the financial year 2021, supported by continued favourable progress on the vaccination rollout and a material shift witnessed towards online shopping, according to the Icra report.
The partial recovery in sales and profitability is expected to result in some improvement in coverage metrics of apparel players during the financial year 2022, supported by limited Capex spends, even though working capital borrowings to support the elongated cycle will keep debt levels high, it added.
