WEB DESK: Pakistan’s trade deficit has shown positive signs, shrinking by 15.25% year-on-year during the July-May period (11MFY24) compared to the same period last year.
This improvement is attributed to a notable increase in exports and a slight decline in imports, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday.
The trade deficit, which represents the gap between a country’s exports and imports, stands at $21.73 billion for the 11 months, down from $25.64 billion in the corresponding period of FY23. This positive development is driven by a 10.65% year-on-year growth in exports, reaching $28.07 billion compared to $25.37 billion previously.
Furthermore, on the import side, the picture shows a slight decline of 2.37%. Imports totaled $49.8 billion in 11MFY24, compared to $51.01 billion in the same period of FY23.
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However, the trend isn’t entirely consistent every month. May 2024 saw a marginal increase in the trade deficit (0.14% YoY) compared to May 2023. This was driven by a rise in both exports (27.08% YoY) and imports (13.89% YoY).
Despite the slight monthly increase, the deficit did decrease by 15.43% compared to April 2024, indicating a possible return to the positive trend observed in the larger time frame.
