ISLAMABAD, April 5: The exports of the country continued their downward trend during the first nine months of the current fiscal year registering a decline of 2.67 per cent as compared to corresponding period of previous year.

According to the preliminary figures available from an official source here on Friday, however, the exports during July-March (2001-02) totalled $6.53 billion, $0.179 billion less than in the same period of 2000-01.

A positive development, however, was dramatic drop in trade deficit: from $1.31 billion during first nine months of previous year to 0.82 billion in the current financial year so far.

The reason for this reduction in trade deficit lies with the persistent sluggish imports.

These totalled $7.35 billion, down 8.44 per cent from previous year.

The lacklustre performance of exports sector is also evident when seen in the light of the target for the current financial year - a modest $9 billion. By the end of March, the country had achieved only 72.62 per cent of the target. In order to come up to the target by the end of the year, the exports during the remaining three months will have to be raised to $0.82 billion per month.

It, however, seems an uphill task because the monthly average of exports in July-March (2001-02) has been only $0.73 billion.

During the period under report, the proportion of imports covered by exports was 88.86 per cent, compared to 83.6 per cent for the corresponding period of previous year.

The export figure for March 2002 was stated to be $725 million — about 2 million dollars less than in the corresponding month of previous year. When compared with February 2002, however, the exports during the month under review surged by 11.18 per cent — narrowing the trade gap to $161.84 million.

But imports, $886.61 million, too registered a significant increase of 17.82 per cent over the previous month.

It seems that the negative trend in exports and imports for the 9-month period was a cumulative effect of tardy performance in the previous months. If the resurgence of exports and imports during the month of March is any indication, these may well accelerate in the coming months. The result may be some rise in trade gap.