BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- China's textile industry maintained moderate growth in the first quarter, though the growth of export to the EU and the United States recorded a sharp drop.

    China's export of garment in the first quarter grew 22.16 percent year on year to 27.99 billion U.S. dollars, the Economic Information Daily quoted sources with China Textile Industry Association as saying on Saturday.

    The growth rate is 3.17 percentage points higher than that of the same period last year, Sun Huaibin, the association's spokesman told the newspaper.

     China's textile exports to the United States and European Union which set quota limits reached 8.37 billion U.S. dollars, growing only 9.7 percent, which is 47 percentage points lower than the growth rate for the same period of last year.

    Meanwhile, Chinese mainland's textile exports to Japan, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which have no quota restrictions, jumped 28.38 percent, up 23.32 percentage points higher than the growth in last year's same period.

    Sun expected China's textile output to grow 20 percent and exports to grow 15 percent this year, the newspaper said. Enditem