ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: Pakistan suffered a trade deficit of $0.432 billion during the first five months of the current financial year, down 5.09 per cent from the corresponding period of 2001-02.

According to the aggregate trade figures released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Monday, exports during the period under review totalled $4.33 billion, showing an increase of 15.91 per cent over the same period of previous year.

In terms of the rupee, however, the increase in exports totalling Rs256.49 billion was only of 8.71 per cent, thanks to steady rise in the par value of rupee against dollar.

This state of affairs was also translated into relative improvement in trade gap, which decreased by 10.75 per cent in the rupee.

Even this impressive improvement failed to remove the trade gap because the imports also surged by 13.73 per cent in US dollars and by 6.70 per cent in the rupee. The improvements during the period July-November 2002 amounted to $4.74 billion. In local currency, the imports totalled Rs280.78 billion, up 6.70 per cent over the same period of previous year.

According to the FBS data, the proportion of exports that covered imports moved up to 91.35 per cent during the period under review. This is 1.62 per cent more than corresponding period of 2001.

The performance of exports thus far raises the hope of the country being able to achieve the target of $10.4 billion for 2002-03. The monthly average of exports during July-November 2002, was $0.865.32 million, as against the required average of $0.867 billion. Thus the exports are running parallel to the target so far.

It, however, appeared that the momentum of exports and imports witnessed during earlier months of current financial year is undergoing stagnation. During November 2002, Pakistan exported merchandise worth $0.85 billion, denoting a reduction of 4.61 per cent over the previous month.

It was, higher decrease in imports (5.82 per cent) which mitigated the impact of decline in exports as evident from 15.50 per cent drop in trade gap. Imports during the month under review totalled $0.952 billion.

When compared with the corresponding month of 2001, however, the exports surged by 19.57 per cent. As the imports (0.952 billion) increased by 15.38 per cent, the result was 10.73 per cent drop in trade gap.