Pakistan’s trade deficit year-on-year widened by a sharp 106.4 per cent to $25.478 billion which was driven largely by a nearly triple increase in imports compared to exports, showed data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.
According to a report compiled by Dawn, merchandise trade deficit swelled by 85.38pc year-on-year to $4.857bn in December.
The trade deficit had reached an all-time high of $37.7bn in FY18. However, the government’s measures led to a drop in it to $31.8bn in FY19 and $23.183bn in FY20. The trend reversed and the trade deficit stood at $30.796bn in FY21.
The trade deficit is expected to reach an all-time high by the end of June 2022.
The import bill in July-December 2021 rose by 65.94pc to $40.580bn against $24.454bn over the corresponding months last year. In December 2021, the import bill edged up to $7.597bn from $4.986bn over the same month last year, reflecting an increase of 52.37pc.
In FY21, the import bill surged by 25.8pc to $56.091bn from $44.574bn the previous year.
Exports posted year-on-year growth of 24.71pc to $15.102bn in July-December 2021. In December 2021, exports saw a growth of 15.8pc to $2.740bn from $2.366bn in the same month last year. On a month-on-month basis, exports declined by 5.55pc in December.
Export proceeds went up by 18.2pc to $25.294bn in FY21 from $21.394bn over the last year.
