As per the employee association of Italian fashion industry, Sistema Moda Italia (SMI), the Italian women’s ready-to-wear industry gained the third consecutive growth year in 2016, reaching a total revenue of Euro 13.07 billion. The growth rate over the previous year was 2.3 per cent, compared to a 2.5 per cent rise in 2015. Womenswear sector is doing rather well than menswear which increased only by 0.9 per cent to total revenue of Euro 9 billion in the last fiscal year.
Italy’s exports to Europe reportedly grew by 3.2 per cent between January and November 2016, and by 4.4 per cent to France, which is its main womenswear market, and by 5 per cent to Germany. Also, Russia depicts the recovery in exports and grew by 0.6 per cent in first 11 months of 2016.
Also Read – Menswear from Italy notes growth
Italian ready-to-wear apparel industry (overall) is expected to increase by 3.9 per cent in 2016, and sector is looking for trade surplus with the increase in industry’s total revenue approximately by 60 per cent. Imports are also likely to increase by 0.3 per cent, SMI said. Apart from this Italy’s domestic market is struggling to overcome and will spot a counter result for the fifth year in succession. Expenditure for women’s fashion in 2016 however fell by 2.7 per cent as per the market research report of Sita Ricerca Institute by SMI.
