Pakistan Trade deficit reaches historic high due decline in exports
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Pakistan’s trade deficit swelled to historic $29.99 billion during eleven months (July-May) of the ongoing financial year due to massive increase in imports and decline in exports.
The trade deficit, gap between exports and imports, soared by 42.12 percent and reached $29.99 billion during July-May period of FY2016-17 from $21.11 billion of the corresponding period of the last year. It was highest ever trade imbalance during eleven months of a financial year.
The latest figures of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed that imports increased by 20.6 percent to $48.54 billion during July-May period from $40.25 billion of the last year.
However, the exports tumbled by 3.13 percent to $18.51 billion in eleven months of the current fiscal year from $19.14 billion of the same period of the previous year.
The eleven-month trade deficit is $10 billion more than the annual trade deficit target of $20.5 billion set by the finance ministry. The country’s current account deficit would touch $8.3 billion (2.7 percent of the GDP) during ongoing fiscal year due to the higher trade deficit.
