Pakistan’s trade deficit widened by 111.74 percent to $20.590 billion during the first five months (July-November) of current fiscal year 2021-22 as compared to $9.724 billion during the same period of FY21, as per data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The data which was compiled by Business Recorder shows that exports witnessed 26.68 percent growth during 5MFY22 and remained $12.344 billion compared to $9.744 billion during 5MFY21.
The country’s trade deficit widened by 133.99 percent on year-on-year basis and stood at $4.963 billion in November 2021 compared to $2.121 billion in November 2020.
The data also revealed that the country’s exports witnessed 32.84 percent growth on year-on-year basis in November 2021 and stood at $2.884 billion compared to $2.171 billion in November 2020.
Imports witnessed 82.83 percent growth on year-on-year basis in November 2021 and stood at $7.847 billion compared to $4.292 billion in November 2020.
The data further revealed that the trade deficit on month-on-month basis widened by 27.01 percent to $4.963 billion in November 2021 compared to $3.908 billion in October 2021.
The country’s exports registered 17.04 percent growth on month-on-month basis and stood at $2.884 billion in November 2021 compared to $2.464 billion in October 2021.
Imports increased by 23.15 percent in November 2021 and stood at $7.847 billion compared to $6.372 billion in October 2021.
Another report by Dawn shows that imports of top 30 items surged by over 142 percent year-on-year in November due to higher prices of commodities mainly petroleum on international market and depreciation of the rupee.
The import bill of energy, steel and industrial raw materials posted growth, while high import of vaccines also contributed significantly to the rise in the November import bill from a year ago.
The total import value of these 30 products in November reached Rs696.346bn from Rs287.131bn over the corresponding month of last year, registering a growth of 142.52pc.
The share of these products in total imports stood at over 53pc.
