Trade gap widens by 141.52pc: 10-month figures released
By Mubarak Zeb Khan
ISLAMABAD, May 21: Pakistan’s trade deficit rose by 141.52 per cent in 10 months (from July-April 2004-05) against the same period of the last fiscal year. Official figures released here on Saturday by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) showed trade deficit stood at $4.842 billion during the 10 months as against $2.005 billion in the same period of the last year.
The government had projected in the trade policy for 2004-05, the deficit at over $ 3 billion. However, with this increase in the imports bill during the 10 months, it was expected that the trade deficit might reach close to $6 billion by the end of the current fiscal year.
Monthly statistics showed that the deficit increased by 45.71 per cent to $601.548 million in April 2005 as against $412.834 million during the corresponding month of the last year.
However, the deficit declined by 23.49 per cent in April 2005, when compared with the deficit registered in March 2005. A massive rise in the deficit was attributed to increase in the imports of machinery, particularly, the textile machinery, followed by increase in the prices of the POL products in the international market, increase in imports of metal group and food group.
The statistics also showed that Pakistani exports registered a growth of 15.28 per cent in the 10 months (July-April) and stood at $11.529 billion this year as against $10.001 billion during the same period of the last year.
This showed that Pakistan exports had crossed the double-digit figures during the period under review and would now reach to $14 billion target set for the current fiscal year. Monthly exports registered an increase of 18.79 per cent as it stood at $1.301 billion in April 2005, as against $1.095 billion during the same period of the last year.
The import bill has increased by 36.36 per cent during the July-April period this year as it stood at $16.372 billion against $12.006 billion during the same period of the last year. This showed that the import target of $16.7 billion had been met during the 10 months this year and it was likely that import bill might reach to around $20 billion by the end of the current year.
On monthly basis, the import bill rose by 26.16 per cent to $1.903 billion in the 10 months.
