ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s trade deficit reached all-time high at $37.6 billion from $20.4 billion in Fiscal Year 2017-18.
Before PML-N’s government, exports from Pakistan stood at $24.5 billion by the end of FY13, while the import bill of the country was recorded at $44.9 billion.
It is to be noted that Pakistan acquired the GDP plus status from the European Union in December 2013, granting member states duty-free access to 96 percent of Pakistani exports to the European Union (EU).
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said that Pakistani exporters benefited less compared to the other countries.
Meanwhile, Pakistani exports rose by 13.74 percent in FY18 from a year ago, boosted by higher shipments of textiles, food items and POL products, data from Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed Wednesday.
However, the country largely missed the export target of $35 billion, which the federal government had set in the three-year Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2016-18.