Pakistan’s trade deficit on the rise for past nine months

Islamabad [Pakistan], April 5 (ANI): As Pakistan’s economic woes continue, the country’s trade deficit has been on the rise for nine consecutive months owing to an unprecedented increase in imports while exports stagnated at around USD 2.5 billion to USD 2.8 billion a month.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data, the country’s trade deficit widened 70 percent year-on-year to USD 35.4 billion during the nine months through March as imports near USD 60 billion, reported Dawn.
The trade deficit in the month of March came in at USD 3.45 billion, growing by around 12 percent over February and by 5.5 percent compared to March 2021.
Moreover, an all-time high in the trade deficit was seen in the 2017-18 fiscal year. The trade deficit in that fiscal year was USD 37.7 billion. It dropped in the next fiscal year 2018-2019 but the trend reversed and the trade gap jumped to USD 30.8bn in the 2020-21 fiscal year and is expected to reach an all-time high during the ongoing fiscal year, reported the newspaper.
In the 2020-21 fiscal year, the import bill surged 26pc to USD 56bn from USD 44.6bn a year ago and the government has projected the annual export target for commodities at USD 31.2bn and services at USD 7.5bn. (ANI)