ISLAMABAD, Nov 6: Pakistan's exports declined by 1.4 per cent during the month of October 2004 over the same month last year.

Provisional figures released by the commerce ministry on Saturday showed that export of goods stood at $0.999 billion in October 2004 against $1.007bn during the same month last year.

A senior official told Dawn that Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan had directed the Export Promotion Bureau to carry out detail analysis of the exportable products -- product-wise and sector-wise - to identify the actual reasons for decline in exports during the month under review.

The EPB has been assigned the task to identify either the decrease in exports in October occurred due to decrease in the volume of products or due to reduction in the prices of raw materials, which subsequently affected the prices of finished products.

According to the official, the whole exercise was expected to be finalized within a period of one week. "Following the analysis, the ministry would take necessary action."

On the other hand, imports during October 2004 increased to $1.584bn from $1.177bn during October 2003, indicating a significant increase of 34.6 percent.

Due to surge in imports, the trade deficit increased to $591 million during October 2004 from $170m in October 2003, an increase of 247.6 per cent. Exports as percentage of imports decreased to 62.7 per cent during October 2004 from 85.6 per cent during October 2003.

The over all exports during July-October 2004-05 stood at $4.462bn as against $3.974bn during same period last year, registering an increase of 12.3pc.

The percentage achievement during July-October 2004-05 was 32.6 per cent of the export target of 2004-05.

Imports during the first four months this year increased to $5.894 billion from $4.289 billion during the same period last year, registering an increase of 37.4 per cent.

During July-October 2004-05, trade deficit increased to $1.432 billion as against $0.315 billion in July-October 2003-04, registering an increase of 354.6pc. Exports as percentage of imports decreased to 75.7pc during July-October 2004-05 from 92.7pc during the same period last year.