ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: Financial year 2002-03 has started with a trade deficit of $1.1 billion, according to the aggregate foreign trade figure for the month of July 2002, released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Monday.

Thus at the outset of the year, the country suffered a trade imbalance 2.22 per cent more than for the corresponding month of previous year.

Exports during the first month of the year amounted to $816 million. This is indeed an impressive achievement because it is 19.31 per cent more than the exports during July 2001. It was not, however, very impressive when compared against June 2002. For the month of July 2002 lagged behind the previous month by 15.39 per cent.

The imports in July 2002 totalled $926 million - 16.99 per cent more than in the comparable period of previous year. As against June 2002, however, the imports registered a decline of 5.05 per cent during the month under review.

The proportion of imports covered by the exports also shows some improvement. In July 2001, the exports had constituted 86.4 per cent of the imports as against 88.11 per cent in the first month of the year 2002-03.