Textiles sector hanging on by a thread
The textiles sector in Greece deteriorated further in the first five months of 2010, as processing by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) of the financial reports of the 65 major companies in the domain shows. Production volume decreased by 18.8 percent in the period from January to May, compared with the same months last year, while in May alone the same index showed losses of 21 percent compared with the same month in 2009. The decline in textile production has picked up since the start of the year on an annual basis even though it had dropped by 27.7 percent in 2009. Last year was a particularly bad one for most Greek textile companies. Nevertheless, the cotton subsector managed to contain its losses thanks to the improvement in international prices and the inflow of significant extraordinary revenues. Therefore, the improvement in cotton-processing firms meant that the profit-making enterprises outnumbered those that posted a loss. In total last year, 35 companies registered profits with net earnings of 15.6 million euros, and 30 sustained losses that added up to a sizable 129.8 million euros.
