The exporters were counting on the Asian tigers in their tank to sustain their growth, which has already made this sector the second-largest earner of foreign currency for France after manufacturing. The situation can be best described as serious for the moment, but hopefully open to a rebound. There's no reason to panic,'' a fashion house executive said this week in a professional newspaper, the Journal du Textile. The trouble has been in countries such as Malaysia that are still marginal as a French market, but our worry concerns the potential risk of seeing this downturn occur simultaneously with the continuing weakness of the Japanese yen - and with doubts about Hong Kong,'' said an executive at one of France's top exporters. Already, the stock market has knocked several points off the shares of leading French companies, whose growth has been heavily dependent on expansion of sales in Asian markets.
Japan accounts for nearly half of French sales in Asia.
The potential of Asia was underscored last spring when LVMH bought Duty Free Shoppers, a company that controls many airport stores in Asia.