The sales of clothing, home textiles rose modestly while sales of footwear, and bags in particular, dropped by 7 percent. According to the Association of Textile and Footwear Importers and Wholesalers, the clothing sales went up by 12.4 percent at even pace in men’s, women’s and children’s wear.

Even though wholesale figures went down by 10.3 percent, continuing on the four year downtrend, subsequent structural changes in the distribution channels and sales of traditional wholesalers developed better than the sales of purchasing organizations of chains, super markets and department stores.