Preliminary data suggests that world textile fiber consumption increased by 4.8% to a record of 67.7 million tons in 2007, an increase of 3.0 million tons over the previous year1. Cotton products accounted for 32% of additional consumption of textilefiber products in 2007, down from 51% in 2006, while the remaining 68% of increased fiber use was shared by wool, cellulosic and non-cellulosic fibers (jointly referred to as non-cotton textile fibers)2. The driving force behind the increase in fiber consumption was the global economic expansion observed in 2007 (Figure 1). Despite suffering a significant slowdown in the last quarter of 2007 as a consequence of the global financial turbulence unleashed by the U.S. subprime crisis, global economic growth only decelerated from 5.0% in 2006to4.9%in20073.
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