Panama
Presidential Election Enters
Final Phase
Nearly 8,000 Jobs Lost in Nicaragua Textile
Industry
Hondurans Risk Swine
Flu for May Day March
Guatemala Debt at 22
percent GDP
Nearly
8,000 Jobs Lost in Nicaragua Textile
Industry
Managua – Textile and garment factories
operating in Nicaragua’s free-trade zones
have eliminated a total of 7,831 positions
so far this year, the Anitec association
representing the industry said Thursday.
Anitec said that several factories have
suspended operations due to the slump in
demand in the United States, the main
customer for Nicaragua’s exports of clothing
and textiles.
Cone Denim, Fusion and Knitwear are among
the plants that have shut down because of
the global recession.
More than 17,000 Nicaraguans lost their jobs
in 2008 with the closure of five clothing
and textile plants in the free-trade zone,
Anitec said, forecasting that 2009 will be a
“bad” year.
The 129 companies operating in Nicaragua’s
free-trade zones directly employ around
76,000 people.
Exports from the free-trade zones totaled
$1.25 billion last year, up only slightly
from 2007, according to Nicaraguan
government statistics.
Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in
the Western Hemisphere. EFE |
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