ISLAMABAD, March 2: Pakistan's trade deficit rose by 195.65 per cent during seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year, over the same period last year.

In absolute terms, the trade deficit increased to $2.882 billion during the period under review, from $0.974 billion in the corresponding period the last year, according to official figures released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Wednesday.

The data was delayed by almost a month due to lack of an effective system for the compilation of trade figures. Officials of the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) and the FBS have been working for the last two months to make an effective and credible system for the compilation of data related to exports and imports.

The statistics showed that the trade deficit increased by 84.95 per cent in January 2005 to $465.455m, as against $251.671m during the same month last year. The hike in deficit is attributed to massive growth in import bill of petroleum products during the period under review followed by import of metal group, machinery, agriculture and other chemical and food groups.

Further break-up showed that Pakistan exported goods worth $7.652 billion during the July-Jan period against $6.975bn during the same period last year, showing an increase of 9.71 per cent.

The growth in exports of commodities declined from around 12 per cent in the first five months this year to 9.71 per cent by the end of seven months. On a monthly basis, the exports registered a growth of 5.29 per cent in January 2005 to $1.151 billion against $1.093 billion during the same month last year.

The import bill of goods rose by 32.51 per cent to $10.534 billion during the July-Jan period of the current fiscal year against $7.949 billion during the same period last year. The import bill increased by 20.19 per cent to $1.617 billion in January 2005 against $1.345 billion during the same month last year.