Country’s export surges by 1.8% in July-Feb and declines 7.54% on MoM basis

Trade deficit shrinks by 11.03% in last eight months

KARACHI: The country’s goods exports have surged by 1.8 per cent in last eight-month of the current fiscal year (July-Feb 2018-19) and stood at $15.113 billion compared to $14.838 billion in the same period last year. However, it declined by 7.54 per cent to $1.889 billion in February 2019 compared to January 2019 while 0.37 per cent compared to February 2018.

Despite sliding the trade deficit by 11.03 per cent, the trade deficit stood at $21.523 billion in July-Feb 2018-19 compared to $24.191 billion stood in the same period last year.

The government of Prime Minister Imran Khan and his cabinet is making all their efforts to boost the exports since August 2018 and trying to overcome the rising imports and current account deficit, which had touched $18.9 billion in 2017-18.

The central bank had already received $3 billion from Saudi Arab, UAE and Abu Dhabi in the head of financial assistance. The Saudi government had promised to give $6 billion to Pakistan, including $3 billion oil import on deferred payments for next three year. Meanwhile, the Chinese government and United Arab Emirates (UAE) had also promised to give financial supports to Pakistan. The central bank has also received an amount of $1 billion Abu Dhabi Fund, it is learnt.

Pakistan team headed by finance minister Asad Umer is also negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to get $6-$7 billion.

The State Bank reserves stood at $8.116 billion, which are less than the import bill of two-month. Total reserves of the country stood at $14.956 billion.

The imports of the country have gone down by 6.13 per cent to $36.636 billion in Jul-Feb 2018-19 compared to $39.029 billion in the same period last year. On YoY basis it decreased by 12.26 per cent to $4.180 billion in February 2019, compared to $4.764 billion in same period last year. On Month-on-Month basis it increased by 7.19 per cent compared to January 2019.

The import bills had touched $55.8 billion in 2017-18 which is more than double of the total export’s inflows of $24.772 billion.