From January to February, due to the marginal recovery of global trade demand, the continuous effectiveness of domestic policies to boost consumption, and the effect of the extremely long Spring Festival holiday, the economic operation of China's clothing industry stabilized and recovered. Both domestic sales and exports achieved rapid growth, and the main indicators such as production and efficiency significantly improved. Only the investment scale showed a slight contraction. Currently, the external environment has become more complex and severe, with rising risks of geopolitical conflicts and intertwined issues such as insufficient terminal consumption. Enterprises still face many difficulties and challenges in their production and operation, and the foundation for the stable recovery of the industry needs to be further consolidated. 

01 Production 

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in January-February 2026, the industrial added value of large-scale enterprises in China's clothing industry increased by 5.1% year-on-year. The growth rate was 8.1 percentage points higher than that of the whole year of 2025. The output of clothing by large-scale enterprises increased by 0.82% year-on-year, with the growth rate rising by 4.26 percentage points compared to the whole year of 2025. 

02 Domestic Sales 

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in January-February 2026, China's total social consumer goods retail sales reached 8,607.89 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of 2.8%, a decrease of 0.9 percentage points compared to the full year of 2025. Among this, the cumulative retail sales of clothing items by units above the designated size reached 211.25 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of 10.7%, which was 7.9 percentage points higher than the full year of 2025. According to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in January-February 2026, online retail sales of goods reached 2,081.20 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of 10.3%. Among this, the online retail sales of clothing items increased by 18.0% year-on-year, which was 16.1 percentage points higher than the full year of 2025. 

03 Export 

According to data from the Chinese customs, in the first two months of 2026, China's cumulative export of clothing and clothing accessories reached 24.87 billion US dollars, with a year-on-year growth of 14.8%. The growth rate was 21.7 percentage points higher than that of the same period in 2025 and 19.8 percentage points higher than that for the whole of 2025. 

04 Investment 

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first two months of 2026, the actual investment in China's clothing industry decreased by 3.3% compared to the previous year, with the growth rate dropping by 8.5 percentage points compared to the full year of 2025. 

05 Benefits 

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in January-February 2026, there were 12,532 enterprises in the clothing industry that were (with annual main business revenue of 20 million yuan or more)， achieving a total revenue of 162.985 billion yuan， an increase of 0.89% compared to the previous year， with the growth rate rising by 13.56 percentage points compared to the full year of 2025； the total profit was 5.829 billion yuan， a decrease of 5.19% compared to the previous year， with the decline narrowing by 22.15 percentage points compared to the full year of 2025； the operating profit margin was only 3.58%， 0.23 percentage points lower than the same period of 2025 and 0.47 percentage points lower than the full year of 2025. 

Data source: National Bureau of Statistics, China Customs 

(Source: China Garment Association)