Clothing imports into the EU fell 5% between January and October of 2012, as compared to the same months in 2011. According to the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM), Bangladesh has now surpassed Turkey as the EU’s second biggest supplier of clothing–the biggest is still China–but while imports from China dropped 9% in value, the value of imports from Bangladesh grew 9%.


A lackluster European economy and rising minimum wages in Chinese factories are credited with the EU’s shift in attention to cheaper Asian markets–purchases were also up in Vietnam and Sri Lanka (3% and 6%, respectively).
