Foreign trade exports are under pressure and moving forward, with resilience and challenges coexisting

Since 2025, China's textile industry has experienced a complex situation of foreign trade pressure and intensified domestic trade competition due to multiple factors such as equivalent tariffs and global economic downturn. As industry practitioners focus on the development direction for 2026, the Central Politburo meeting has clearly released a key signal - to continue implementing a more proactive fiscal policy. This policy tone injects strong impetus into the growth of domestic textile trade and makes the entire industry full of expectations for the development of the new year. Faced with the enormous potential of the domestic trade market and structural challenges on the export side, the textile industry is standing at a critical juncture of "stabilizing domestic demand, strengthening resilience, and breaking internal competition".

Foreign trade exports are under pressure and moving forward, with resilience and challenges coexisting

According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, from January to November 2025, China's textile and clothing exports totaled 267.8 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 1.9%, and the overall export performance did not meet expectations. Among them, the export of textiles and clothing showed a differentiated trend: the export value of textiles was 130.01 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 0.9%, continuing the steady growth trend and demonstrating strong industry resilience; The export value of clothing was 137.79 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 4.4%, and the decline has expanded compared to before, becoming the main factor dragging down export growth.

Measured in RMB, the total export value of textiles and clothing from January to November was 1.9 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.2%. In terms of segmentation, textile exports amounted to 931.33 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.7%; Clothing exports amounted to 987.26 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.7%. It is worth noting that there was a positive change in the monthly export data for November, with a textile and clothing export value of 23.87 billion US dollars. Although it decreased by 5.1% year-on-year, it showed a rebound trend compared to the previous month. Among them, textile exports reached 12.28 billion US dollars, achieving a year-on-year growth of 1% despite a high base; Clothing exports amounted to 11.59 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 10.9%, but the decline narrowed by 5 percentage points compared to October, indicating signs of recovery after industry adjustment.

The main factors supporting export resilience come from two aspects: first, the phased progress of China US economic and trade consultations has eased the direct pressure brought by trade frictions; Secondly, the overseas market has entered a seasonal replenishment cycle, which has led to an increase in short-term demand for China's textile and clothing products. However, in the medium to long term, the structural risk of global inflation has not yet subsided, and uncertain factors such as geopolitical conflicts, rising trade protectionism, and non-tariff barriers will continue to disrupt the stability of the global supply chain. Textile export enterprises still need to be vigilant about downside risks.

Fiscal policy continues to intensify, with domestic trade becoming the core of growth

On December 8th, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting to analyze and study the economic work in 2026, and clearly proposed to "continue implementing a more proactive fiscal policy", which is consistent with the policy tone of 2025 and provides solid policy support for the development of domestic trade in the textile industry.

Looking back to 2025, the year when the central government first explicitly implemented the "more proactive" fiscal policy, the policy intensity was unprecedented: the fiscal deficit ratio rose significantly from 3% in 2024 to a historical high of 4%, while expanding the issuance of special treasury bond and special bonds of local governments. The total new government debt in the year was nearly 12 trillion yuan, an increase of nearly 3 trillion yuan compared with 2024. The strong policy investment has directly driven the expansion of fiscal expenditure. According to data from the Ministry of Finance, in the first 10 months of 2025, the national general public budget expenditure was about 22.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2%; The national government fund budget expenditure is about 8.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.4%, effectively promoting the stable operation of the domestic economy.

The so-called active fiscal policy, also known as expansionary fiscal policy, is aimed at stimulating total social demand and promoting economic recovery and growth through measures such as increasing government spending, widening fiscal deficits, issuing government bonds, and increasing transfer payments when economic growth is weak. Since the 2008 international financial crisis, China has always adhered to a proactive fiscal policy orientation, and the expression "more proactive" means a further increase in policy intensity, which will directly drive the vitality of the domestic consumer market and create favorable conditions for the growth of domestic textile trade.

For the textile industry, the importance of the domestic market will reach an unprecedented level by 2025. Affected by restrictions on foreign trade, a large number of textile enterprises have turned their attention to the domestic market, while there is still huge demand and exploration space in China's domestic trade market. The continuous implementation of proactive fiscal policies will further unleash the potential of domestic textile consumption and provide guarantees for the growth of enterprise orders through multiple paths such as stimulating consumption, stabilizing employment, and supporting the real economy.