ISLAMABAD: The exports of pharmaceutical products witnessed nominal decrease of 2.57 percent during the eleven months of ongoing fiscal year (2019-20) as compared to the exports of corresponding period of last year.

The pharmaceutical exports were recorded at US $192.549 million during July-May (2019-20) as against the export of US $197.629 million during July-May (2018-19), showing negative growth of 2.57 percent, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data.

In terms of quantity, the exports of pharmaceutical products however witnessed increase of 2.67 percent by going up from 12,869 metric tons to 13,213 metric tons, according to the data.

Meanwhile, year-on-year basis the pharmaceutical goods export decreased by 10.05 percent during the month of May 2020 as compared to the same month of last year.

The pharmaceutical exports in May 2020 were recorded at US $16.055 million against the export of $17.848 million in May 2019, the PBS data revealed.

On month-on-month basis, the exports of pharmaceutical product however rose by 55.29 percent in May 2020 as compared to $10.339 million in March 2020.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s trade deficit witnessed significant reduction in eleven months of current financial year and declined by 27.75% as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The exports witnessed decrease of 6.85% and reached to $19.801 billion against the exports of $21.256 billion of the same period of last year.

On the other hand, the country’s imports witnessed significant decrease of 18.93% and went down from $50.410 billion last financial year to $40.866 billion of same period of current financial year.

Based on the figures, the trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at $21.065 billion against the deficit of $29.154 during last year, showing decline of 27.75 percent.