Current Trends on the World Textile Market and the Competitiveness of the Serbian Textile Industry

International trade in textiles and clothing has showed more dynamic growth in the last decade in terms of trends in the global production of textile and clothing products. Developing countries, especially those from the Asian region, are the world’s leading textile exporters, which is one of the key levers of their rapid economic growth, while the textile industry in Serbia is among the leading export sectors of the country’s economy despite the serious development issues brought about by the transition process. For the purpose of this paper, the particular analytical tools of the methodology developed by the International Trade Centre (ITC), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) were selected. The simplified national export profile – NEP, which gives an overview of the national economy’s export performance by product (both in static and dynamic terms), was used for the analysis of Serbia’s textile industry. In addition, the Balassa index of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) was also used in this paper. Analysis of the competitiveness of the aforementioned industry regarding relative changes in its share in the world market indicates positive changes of Serbia in this area. Relevant indicators are satisfactory, as well as the industry’s specialisation in relation to the global average and export performances of the main export product. However, speaking from the perspective of the export structure, especially trends related to the share of subcontracting, i.e. outward processing, it is clear that the competitiveness of the textile industry in Serbia is primarily based on pricing.