Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) released statistics on Monday which revealed that textile and clothing exports had fallen 0.92pc from the year before to $10.29b in the July-April 2016-17 period. It has been mainly attributed to declining earnings from raw materials and low value added products like cotton yarn and fabrics.
The data revealed that exports of value added products rose in July-April 2016-17 and as per product breakdown the exports of readymade garments increased 5.34pc, knitwear fell 0.17pc, bed-wear increased by 5.01pc and towels decreased 4.38pc. The exports of made-up articles rose 1.18pc and those of canvas, tarpaulin and tents also went up by 56.22pc.Cotton exports of raw cotton also saw a fall on a year on year basis of 47.58pc. And earnings from silk and synthetic textile exports, art items also went down by 29.7pc. The overall exports for the first 10 months stood at $16.91b recording a fall of 2.29pc from the year before.
In imports, the category of oil and machinery import bill reached $23.71b in July-April 2016-17 recording an increase of 31pc from the year before. The overall petroleum imports also inched upwards reaching $8.76b and recording an increase of 31.3pc from the year before. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports went up by a whopping margin of 129.17pc and of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) registered a rise of 35.59pc. Petroleum imports reached $5.49b to record an increase of 32.42pc on a year on year basis.
Second major contributor to the import bill is food items which registered an increase of 16.68pc from the year before to reach $5.09b in June-April 2016-17. Â In this period June-April 2016-17, palm oil imports were recorded at $1.55b, tea at $452.28b and pulses $834.45m. And the imports of machinery also saw a massive increase to reach $9.85b up by 39.25pc from the year before.
