ISLAMABAD, Feb 12: Pakistan’s trade gap widened 16.43 per cent to $7.595 billion during the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year compared to $6.52 billion in the corresponding period of last year.

In January the trade deficit grew by 23.18 per cent over January 2006 as exports dipped while imports rose at higher rate, according to official statistics released by Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Monday.

Merchandise exports up marginally at 3.86 per cent to fetch a total $9.630 billion during the July-Jan period as against $9.271 billion the same period last year. An export target of $18.6 billion has been set for FY07.

Imports climbed by 9.05 per cent to $17.225 billion during the period under review as against $15.795 billion over the same period of the last year.

This high import growth has resulted in pushing the trade deficit further higher. The government has projected import bill at $28bn for the current fiscal.

Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan told Dawn that January was historically a slow month for exports. He, however, did not elaborate the reasons for this trend.

Mr Khan hoped that exports would pick up in coming months.

Answering a question the minister said that the export target would not be revised downward. “We will achieve the target,” the minister resolved.

Analysts said that the trade policy announced for the current fiscal would not help in reducing the imports and boosting the exports.

They said in case the trends continued for another few months it would have a serious impact on the country’s balance of payment.

They warned that the higher trade deficit would also have a negative impact on the health of the rupee. They said that for the current fiscal year this impact might be very nominal, which could be grave from the next fiscal year in case the current trend in the growth of imports remained the same.