ISLAMABAD: The exports of textile and clothing grew by 4.68 per cent year-on-year to $5.76 billion during the first five months of 2019-20, showed data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

The overall improvement in current account after a gap of five years was mainly contributed by increase in exports of textile and clothing and decline in import of oil and food products.

In November, textile and clothing export proceeds were recorded at $1.17bn, higher by 7.03pc, from $1.09bn over the corresponding month last year.

Product-wise details reveal that exports of knitwear increased by 8.69pc in value and 6.05pc in quantity, followed by 4.69pc and 14.37pc in bedwear, respectively. Foreign sales of readymade garments rose by 13.19pc in value and 35.95pc in volume while proceeds from towel only inched by a modest 1pc.

Moreover, export of cotton yarn were higher by 2.87pc, followed by raw cotton at 3.67pc, yarn other than cotton 2.81pc, art and silk 10.7pc and cotton carded 100pc while that of cotton cloth declined by 3.74pc.

The aggregate exports bill enha­nced 4.79pc year-on-year to $9.54bn in July-November, from $9.10bn.

Oil imports

Meanwhile, the import bill of petroleum group dipped 21.79pc to $5.11bn during the five months, with the largest drop coming from crude oil at 28.01pc, which fell by 11.65pc in terms of quantity to 3.35m tonnes.

The cost of petroleum products plunged 25.66pc during the period with 14.44pc decline recorded in terms of quantity imported, bringing the total down to 3.9m tonnes.

Liquefied natural gas imports were down 8.43pc while those of liquefied petroleum gas surged 32.38pc.

Machinery imports decreased 3.97pc to $3.58bn, from $3.72bn last year, led by office machinery, down 17.03pc, textile 1.7pc and construction 41.8pc.

Contrary to this, in telecom, mobile handsets soared 63.62pc to $498.46m while other apparatus plunged by 23.61pc to $184.29m. The increase in former was the result of crackdown on smuggling and doing away with free imports in baggage schemes.

Similarly, import of electrical machinery jumped by 31.34pc to $971.34m on a yearly basis. On the other hand, import of machineries related to agriculture, textile, construction among others declined.

The overall transport group also witnessed a decrease of 41.91pc as imports of motor vehicle (CBU) were declined by a massive 73.9pc during July-November.

Meanwhile, food group imports fell by 15.36pc during July-November mainly due to imposition of regulatory duties on proceeds. The decline was noted in imports of milk product, wheat, dry fruits, tea, soybean oil, palm oil, sugar, and pulses. On the flip side, import of spices increased by 1.26pc.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2019