ISLAMABAD: The country's exports have registered lower growth in October 2020 compared to the corresponding period of 2019-20. On Monday, Prime Minister's Advisor on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood tweeted that exports maintained a growth trend in October of the current year however he did not provide total value of exports in October 2020 to allow for a comparison to the corresponding period of the year before when exports registered 2.024 billion.

"Exports have crossed the $2 billion mark after July 2020 and are back on track to pre-Covid-19 levels despite contraction in major markets due to Covid-19. But uncertainty created by recent resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic," he tweeted leaving the sentence unfinished.

Commerce Ministry's silence on export figures of the first four months of current fiscal year as compared to corresponding period of 2019-20 also hints that exports may be slightly lower than last year. A clear picture will be available after PBS releases provisional trade data for October.

Razak Dawood, however, claimed that pharmaceutical exports are off to a good start this year realizing $68.1 million in the first quarter 2020-21 as compared to $55.6 million in the corresponding period last year - a growth of 22.6 percent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020