Despite all efforts of the government, the exports of the country decreased by 2.29 per cent to $16.918 billion in July-April 2016-17, while imports touched an all-time high of $43.473 billion or 40.12 per cent during the same period.
According to the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) here on Wednesday, the country’s export stood at $16.918 billion in the last ten months of the current fiscal year compared to $17.314 billion down by $396 million, while the imports of the country touched $43.473 billion compared to $36.265 billion in the same period last year.
Trade deficit further enhanced up to $26.555 billion in July-April 2016-17, up by 40.12 per cent compared to $18.961 billion in the same period last year. It surged by 51.69 per cent in April 2017 on a MoM basis, while declined by 0.47 per cent up on YoY basis.
An analyst said, “it could be an impact of the 100 per cent cash margin financing condition on the imports of CBU cars and its parts while other few luxurious products imposed by the central bank from March this year which helped in reducing the import bill,” the analyst said.
The imports of textile machinery will have to benefit the industry, but we are looking at nothing for the last ten months, the analyst said. Owing to the rising oil import bills, total imports had jumped to $43.473 billion, around 160 per cent up of the total exports of the country, not being a good sign for country’s economy, he added.
The federal government has given a number of incentives to the textile industry over the last six months to improve exports while taking several measures to improve the cotton import, the main demand of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) the analyst said.
On Year-on-Year basis, the goods exports are stood at $1.805 billion in April 2017 up by 0.22 per cent compared to $1.801 billion in March 2017, meanwhile on a month-on-month basis, the goods exports went up by 5.19 per cent compared to the exports of $1.716 billion in April 2016, the data said.
Similarly, the imports of the country declined by 0.22 per cent to $4.998 billion in April 2017, compared to $5.009 billion in March 2017, while on a MoM basis, the imports increased by 30.80 per cent compared to $3.821 billion in April 2016.
The analyst said that all the economic indicators of the country have been improved in the last ten months except the exports and the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), while we are looking at 2017 as ‘the best year of the country’.
