China's textiles and garments exports are expected to slide by over 10 percent this year, the fastest drop in 30 years, the China Business News reported Thursday, citing comments by Sun Ruizhe, vice president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council.

Data from the General Administration of Customs of China show that the value of the country's textiles and garment exports in the first nine months of 2009 amounted to $121.64 billion, down 11.17 percent year-on-year. The export value of textiles and garments in the first eight months of 2009 amounted to $104.89 billion, down 11.81 percent, compared with the same time period of 2008.

Sun attributed the small improvement in the last month to the fact that foreign inventories were nearly empty, and the coming of Christmas.

But Sun added that it is difficult to tell whether the textile industry is really recovering, and suggested companies rely on both the overseas and the domestic markets as they look to get through the economic crisis.