Assessing Competitiveness In Moldova's Economy - Economic Growth
Assessing Competitiveness In Moldova's Economy - Economic Growth
Assessing Competitiveness In Moldova's Economy - Economic Growth
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Development Alternatives, <strong>In</strong>c. Moldova <strong>Competitiveness</strong> Assessment: The Textiles & Apparel Cluster<br />
Over the period 1999-2002, world imports 24 in the two principal apparel categories, defined<br />
under the Harmonized System (HS) for customs data, increased in value terms, as measured<br />
in U.S. dollars. Figure 16 illustrates major market trends for apparel, and for nonapparel<br />
textile articles, for the world as a whole (which includes of course several of the major<br />
apparel and textile-exporting countries), and for the EU and the U.S. Major markets are far<br />
from saturated, with the highest growth rates being for “other” textile articles, which include,<br />
in particular, household textiles—bed, bath, and kitchen linens. For the U.S., this market has<br />
effectively doubled over that period, from US$3.5 billion in 1998 to US$6.7 billion in 2003.<br />
Figure 16: Major market trends for apparel and textile articles<br />
Note: <strong>Growth</strong> rates for world for 1999-2002, for EU and U.S. 1998-2003.<br />
Within those broad import market segments, individual product groups, as defined by 4- or 6digit<br />
HS categories, show different growth patterns. As the data reported in Table 2 indicate,<br />
the majority of the EU submarkets in HS categories 61-63 in which Moldovan exporters have<br />
a significant presence (that is, with 2003 exports exceeding US$300,000), has been growing,<br />
made up of both the rising and shooting stars. The fact that Moldova’s exporters (processors)<br />
have been able to capture a larger market share for a significant portion of those growing<br />
markets bodes well for the future. These are, of course, not necessarily fully competitive<br />
markets. But increasing market shares imply relative satisfaction of buyers and retailers in<br />
24 All references to trade statistics refer to the Global Trade Atlas, a comprehensive proprietary trade data base<br />
of official merchandise trade statistics from some 50 reporting countries, including all of the major economies,<br />
maintained by Global Trade <strong>In</strong>formation Services (GTIS; www.gtis.com). The data base provides up-to-date<br />
information as soon as the reports become available. However, summing across major commodity groups<br />
defined under the Harmonized System of customs data is limited to years for which data for all reporting are<br />
available. Thus, while we have data for 2003 and even into 2004 for major trading countries, the analysis by<br />
major commodity group for the world is (for now) constrained to data through 2002.<br />
July 2004 • DRAFT Page 7