In just four years, the world consumed an additional 6 million tonnes of textile fibres. The financial crisis changed dramatically the economic climate around the world and the textile and cotton markets were not an exception. The largest adjustment took place in developing countries where textile consumption growth was adjusted from a 2.5 percent increase to a decline of 0.5 percent in 1998. Declines occurred in all developing country regions. Textile consumption in Asia declined 0.3 percent in 1998, the first decline in the region since 1982.
Current estimates suggest that textile consumption declined in both regions in that year.
With the exception of Japan, the impact of the crisis on textile consumption in industrial countries has been modest. Textile consumption in industrial countries is estimated to have increased by about 0.9 percent in 1998, just about as expected. The fact that most of the reduction in economic growth occurred in developing countries could have been important. Continued growth in most of the developed countries might have offset, at least in part, the negative impact of poor growth in developing countries. However, as mentioned above, the growth in consumption in developed countries remained about where it had been expected.