ISLAMABAD, Feb 9: Pakistan’s export of raw cotton, synthetic textile fabrics, cutlery and onyx manufactures dropped drastically during the seven months (July-January) of the current financial year, as overall exports fell by 1.5 per cent.

Provisional figures released by Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Saturday for July-January period, showed that raw cotton exports declined by 93.85 per cent, synthetic textile fabrics by 24.33 per cent, cutlery by 16.33 per cent and onyx manufactures by 22.88 per cent over the corresponding period of the last year.

The total exports of raw cotton during the July-Jan period of current fiscal stood at $6.44 million against $104.9 million last year, synthetic textile fibre stood at $231.61 million against $306.08 million last year, carpets stood at $130.91 million against $156.62 million last year, cutlery to $13.49 million against $16.12 million last year and onyx manufactures stood at $5.67 million against $ 7.36 million last year.

On monthly basis, the exports of rice, raw cotton, cotton yarn, knitwear, synthetic textile fabrics, cutlery, gur and gur products, cotton bags, tarpaulin and canvas goods, onyx manufactures and chemicals and pharmaceutical products registered a massive decline in January 2002 over the corresponding month of the last year.

And the total exports in January fell by 8.25 per cent to $697.2 million this year against $759.9 million during the corresponding month of last year.

In January the export of rice declined by 46.96 per cent, raw cotton by 91.35 per cent, gur and gur products by 38.24 per cent, cotton yarn by 27.38 per cent, knitwear by 22.16 per cent, cotton bags by 41.62 per cent, tarpaulin and canvas goods by 40.49 per cent, synthetic textile fabrics by 44.64 per cent, cutlery by 49.15 per cent, onyx manufactures by 31.82 per cent and chemical and pharmaceutical products by 43.81 per cent over the corresponding month of the last year.

The loss occurred in foreign exchange through decline in exports during the July-Jan period was partially off set by 88.62 per cent reduction in sugar and 25.61 per cent reduction in oil imports, which stood at $1.55 billion this year against $ 2.25 billion during the same period last year.

On the other hand, in terms of value, import of petroleum products during the July-Jan period of the current financial year fell by 35.47 per cent to $795.73 million this year against $1233.03 million during the same period last year.

Similarly, the imports of crude oil during the same period stood at $734.49 million this year against $824.12 million during the same period last year, registering a decrease of 10.88 per cent.

The imports of textile machinery increased by 24.96 per cent during the July-Jan period of the current financial year, that of construction and mining machinery surged by 46.34 per cent this year when compared with the same period of last year.

Import of textile machinery in seven months of current fiscal stood at $258.44 million this year against $206.82 million last year, while import of construction and mining machinery stood at $57.76 million during the same period this year against $39.47 million during the same period last year. This showed that two industries maintained reasonable expansion and modernization.