US embassy cable - 04GUATEMALA2505

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 002505 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE/EB/TPP/ABT EDWARD HEARTNEY 
COMMERCE/ITA/OTEXA/MARIA D'ANDREA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, ETRD, KTEX 
SUBJECT: GUATEMALAN TEXTILE AND APPAREL DATA 
 
REF: SECSTATE 184238 
 
Embassy contacted various GoG agencies to collect the textile 
and apparel data solicited by reftel.  Methodologies vary and 
data quality is mixed, so we have had to rely on a few leaps 
of faith to come up with some of our estimates.  The total 
value of industrial production on a national accounts basis 
was $2,990 million in 2002 and $3,140 USD in 2003, according 
to our estimates using Central Bank (Banguat) data.  Note 
that Guatemala's national accounts are based on the 1958 
industrial census and are therefore a bit suspect.  The 
Apparel and Textiles Commission (Vestex), a component of the 
Chamber of Nontraditional Exports (Agexpront), estimates the 
total value of textile and apparel production at 1,414.8 
million USD in 2002 and 1,486.5 million in 2003.  Value added 
in textile and apparel exports (presumably comparable to the 
national accounts data for industrial production) was $345.8 
million in 2002 and $418.5 million in 2003, according to 
Banguat (reporting net exports in the services account on a 
balance of payments basis).  The corresponding percentages of 
value added in industrial production represented by textile 
and apparel exports would be 11.6% and 13.3% for 2002 and 
2003, though we caution against using three-digit precision. 
There were 195,954 workers in the manufacturing sector 
registered with the Guatemalan Social Security Institute in 
2002 and 196,337 in 2003.  Agexpront's surveys indicate that 
the number of workers in the apparel industry in was around 
106,100 in 2002 and 108,100 in 2003.  As of the time of this 
writing, Agexpront does not track the number of workers in 
the textile and apparel sector, though it is planning to 
start.  The POC for textile and apparel issues is Econoff 
Mark Andrew Stephens. 
HAMILTON