ISLAMABAD: According to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the nation’s merchandise trade deficit decreased by 34.29% in the first half of the current fiscal year when compared to the same period the previous year.
The trade deficit for July–December of 2023–2024 was $11.148 billion, indicating a negative growth of 34.29 percent, compared to the deficit of $16.965 billion in July–December of 2022–2023.
According to the most recent PBS data, exports climbed by 5.17 percent to $14.981 billion during the period under review compared to $14.244 billion during the similar period previous year.
However, imports decreased to $26.129 billion from $31.209 billion in the previous year, a 16.28% decrease.
Comparing December of this year to the same month the previous year, the nation’s exports rose by 22.21 percent on an annual basis.
On the other hand, the data indicates that imports decreased by 12.25 percent in December 2023, from $5.144 billion in December 2022 to $4.514 billion in December 2023.
When comparing the country’s exports to the $2.573 billion in exports in November 2023, the month-over-month growth was 9.29%.
Compared to November 2023’s imports of $4.539 billion, the country’s imports decreased by 0.55%, according to PBS.
Meanwhile, the services’ exports during July-November (2023-24) earned foreign exchange worth $2,986 million as compared to exports of $3,089 million during the same period of last year, showing negative growth of 3.33 percent.
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In the meantime, foreign exchange earnings from services exports from July to November (2023–24) totaled $2,986 million, down from $3,089 million over the same period the previous year, indicating a 3.33 percent decline in growth.
But in the first five months of the current fiscal year, the country’s imports of services rose by 20.67 percent, from $3,406 million to $4,110 million.
According to the data, the trade deficit in services grew by 254.51 percent throughout the period under examination, from $317 million to $1,124 million this year.