Business

Creeping forward: Figures show shrinking trade deficit

Small gains in exports, reduction in imports help narrow trade gap.

Our Correspondent December 13, 2013

During July-November, the trade deficit shrunk by $452 million. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit reduced to $7.8 billion in the first five months of the fiscal year as imports contracted marginally to $18.1 billion, while exports grew slightly to $10.4 billion.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, as against a trade deficit of $8.2 billion in July-November period of the previous fiscal year, the deficit shrunk by $452 million and remained at $7.8 billion. In terms of percentage, there was a 5.5% reduction in the trade deficit.

The exports in the first five months of the fiscal year grew by 3.1%.

The export receipts were recorded at $10.4 billion in five months as against $10.1 billion in the corresponding period in the previous year, showing a net increase of $312 million.

Imports in this period contracted by 0.6%. The import bill stood at $18.2 billion for the five month period as against the previous year’s import bill of $18.3 billion, reflecting a reduction of $140 million in import bill in the five months.

The reduction of $452 million in the import bill will provide some relief to the government, as the country’s official foreign currency reserves stood at $2.9 billion as of December 6.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2013.

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COMMENTS (2)

optimist | 10 years ago | Reply

@ gp65

Since when you became economic expert? . Last time I read your comments you were film expert and you were rubbishing all the reports written by experts and veterans of that field?

gp65 | 10 years ago | Reply "The reduction of $452 million in the import bill will provide some relief to the government, as the country’s official foreign currency reserves stood at $2.9 billion as of December 6." This shows a fundamental lack of understanding of economics. The reduced trade deficit has already been reflected in the current forex reserves figures with SBP. Just because these numbers were published now, it does not make any difference to the actual reserves. If the trade deficit had not shrunk, the reserves would have been even lower than the current figures. If anything the anemic fall in imports shows that the government has not taken adequate measures to compress the imports at a time that the country is under severe forex stress.

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