ISLAMABAD: The footwear exports from the country witnessed an increase of 11.42 per cent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Pakistan exported footwear worth $90.07 million during July-March (2018-19) against the exports of $80.83 million during July-March (2017-18), showing a growth of 11.42 per cent, according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Among these, the exports of leather footwear witnessed a growth of 10.01 per cent as it surged from $72.07 million during last fiscal year to $79.28 million during the current year.
The canvas footwear exports from the country stood at just $ 0.07 million during the current year against US $ 0.19 million during last year, showing decline of 60.73 per cent.
However, the exports of all other footwear commodities increased by 24.95 per cent during the period under review as these went up from US $ 8.57 million last year to $10.70 million during the current fiscal year.
Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the footwear exports decreased by 9.15 per cent during the month of March 2019 when compared to the same month of last year. The footwear exports during 2019 were recorded at $9.76 million against the exports of $10.74 million in March 2018.
During the month under review, the leather footwear exports decreased by 10.95 per cent, canvas by 100 per cent, however exports of all other footwear commodities increased by 2.21 per cent.
On the other hand, the month-on-month exports of footwear, witnessed a decrease of 11.52 per cent during March 2019 when compared to the exports of $11.029 million in February 2019, the PBS data revealed.
On month-on-month basis, the exports of leather footwear decreased by 13.91 per cent, canvas footwear by 100 per cent whereas the exports of all other footwear products witnessed an increase of 3.71 per cent.
It is pertinent to mention here that the the country’s merchandise trade deficit plunged by 13.02 per cent during July-March (2018-19) as the deficit contracted by over $3.54 billion to $23.67 billion in the period under review against the deficit of $27.22 billion recorded during same period of the previous year.
The exports during the period under review witnessed an increase of 0.11 per cent to $17.08 billion from $17.06 billion during July-March (2017-18).
On the other hand, the imports declined by 7.96 per cent to $40.75 billion from $44.28 billion recorded during first nine months of current fiscal year, the data revealed.
