Seven supplier countries, side by side
What actually differs between the places a garment can be made: the wage bill, the currency, the cost of borrowing, whether the power stays on, and how well the goods move. Every figure carries the year it is from, because they do not share one.
| Indicator | Pakistan | Bangladesh | India | China | Vietnam | Turkey | Egypt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing wage $/month | 932025 | 1422024 | 2162025 | 8332022 | 3472024 | 8962025 | 1032024 |
| Statutory minimum wage $/month | 1332024 | 1082024 | 552024 | 2682024 | 2052024 | 6592025 | 1322024 |
| Consumer price inflation % a year | 3.52025 | 8.82025 | 2.42025 | 0.12025 | 3.32025 | 34.92025 | 14.12025 |
| Commercial lending interest rate % | 8.672021 | 8.622025 | 8.572022 | 4.352024 | 9.322023 | no data | 24.292024 |
| Firms reporting electrical outages % of firms | 50.72022 | 71.42022 | 15.42025 | 3.72024 | 43.02023 | 32.82024 | 35.62025 |
| Logistics performance index, overall 1 to 5 | 2.422018 | 2.602022 | 3.402022 | 3.702022 | 3.302022 | 3.402022 | 3.102022 |
| Spot rate per US dollar, 14 October 2026 | 276.84 PKR | 123.22 BDT | 94.95 INR | 6.69 CNY | 25,901 VND | 49.39 TRY | 52.82 EGP |
| EU tariff treatment preference scheme | GSP+ | EBA | GSP | No GSP scheme | No GSP scheme | Customs union | No GSP scheme |
There is no composite score here and there will not be one. These readings come from four different years, so combining them into a single ranking would look authoritative and mean nothing. Read each line on its own, with its year.
On the United States side, the base duty is the same for all seven. None of the seven origins appears in the special rate list on any of these lines, so on the base rate alone all seven pay the same. Most favoured nation base rates from the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. These are the base rates only. They do NOT include Section 301 duties or IEEPA additional duties, which sit in chapter 99 of the tariff and are not read here, so the duty actually paid on an entry can be higher and can differ by origin.
What is deliberately not compared here, and why (6)
- There is no free, machine readable series of industrial electricity or gas tariffs covering all seven countries, so energy cost is not compared here. The share of firms reporting electrical outages is the nearest free proxy and it measures reliability, not price.
- There is no free policy interest rate series for Pakistan, Bangladesh or Vietnam, so the commercial lending rate is shown instead. It is missing for Turkey entirely.
- The readings do not share a common year. Every figure carries its own year and must be read with it. The Pakistan logistics score is still the 2018 survey while the other six are 2022.
- The wages are national monthly averages in US dollars. They are not spinning or weaving mill rates, and they exclude overtime and employer contributions, so they show the gap between countries rather than a quotable labour cost.
- The United States duty shown is the most favoured nation base rate only. It excludes Section 301 and IEEPA additional duties, which sit in chapter 99 of the tariff and are not read by this script.
- No free, machine readable container freight rate by origin was found, so shipping cost is not compared. On short lead times it can outweigh every difference above.
What this means for country costs
What this is Seven sourcing countries side by side on wages, electricity, logistics performance, the exchange rate, and the tariff their goods pay entering the United States and the European Union.
How to read it Each column is a country, with Pakistan tinted as the home column, and each row is one costing ingredient in the unit printed under its name. The small year beneath each figure matters: countries report in different years, so figures across a row are only roughly comparable, which is exactly why no overall score is printed. Where a cell says no data, the source has none; it does not mean zero.
What moves it Wage revisions, energy policy, the currency, and trade preference decisions such as GSP eligibility.
How to use it A structured comparison before moving production, so the decision rests on all of the inputs rather than on one quoted FOB price.
The trap There is deliberately no single ranking score. Combining a wage with a tariff and a port score needs weights we would be inventing, and the panel lists the things it cannot measure at all, including quality, compliance, and whether a factory can actually make your product.
World Bank Indicators under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to the World Bank. Wage data from ILOSTAT under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to the International Labour Organization. EU preference status read from the Commission's own list; United States base rates from the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. Read on 14 October 2026. World Bank (opens in a new tab) · ILOSTAT (opens in a new tab) · US HTS (opens in a new tab)