The trade deficit in January shrunk by 30.19 per cent to $3.36 billion as compared to $4.8 billion recorded in December 2021.
As per the monthly trade figures released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Wednesday, the imports during January 2022 was recorded $5.9 billion as compared to the $7.6 billion registered in December 2021 which was a decline of 22 per cent.
On a year-on-year basis, Pakistan’s exports witnessed an increase of 18.7 per cent as it rose to $2.54 billion in January this year as compared to $2.1 billion recorded in the same month of previous year.
The imports in January 2022 also increased by 23 per cent to $5.9 billion as compared to $4.8 billion registered in the corresponding month of 2021 while the trade deficit during the corresponding period rose by 26 per cent.
The exports in January 2022, however, decreased by 7.89 per cent to $2.54 billion as compared to $2.76 billion registered in the previous month (December 2021).
The imports also decreased by 22 per cent to $5.98 billion as compared to $7.58 billion registered in December 2021.
On average, the exports during the first seven months (Jul-Jan) of fiscal year 2021-22 surged to $17.7 billion against $14.255 billion in the same period of previous year, showing an increase of 24 per cent.
The imports also rose to $46 billion from $29.2 billion in July-Jan (2020-21) showing an increase of 58 per cent. Whereas the trade deficit rose sharply to $28 billion during the period under review, thus showing an increase of 92 per cent.
Earlier, spokesman for the Finance Minister, claimed that during the previous few months, the unprecedented increase in the import bill was mainly due to import of covid vaccine, sugar, and wheat. He however said that since these commodities would not be imported now so there would not be any sudden increase in imports.
He said at present the country had surplus stock of sugar and wheat, so there was no need for their import. Further he said the inflation in the country had reached its peak now and it would decline in the months to come along with imports and trade deficit.
The spokesman said such a situation was created in 2008 too when prices in the international market rose sharply but then the government made a major mistake by depleting the country’s foreign exchange reserves to maintain the currency value.
On the other hand, he said that now due to a rational approach especially by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the country’s reserves did not go down which were on a historically higher side and the exchange rate too did not lose its value as much as it was expected.
The spokesman said prices of perishable items in the country were on the declining trend, while unlike during the last year, wheat flour price was also stable this year. Similarly, prices of eggs, chicken, tomatoes, and fresh vegetables were also stable.
