Pakistan’s exports for the month of March 2021 reached USD 2.345 billion, showing a month-on-month increase of 13.4 percent as compared to February 2021.

As per the provisional figures of the Ministry of Commerce, “it is the monthly highest in last ten years,” said Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Trade and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Thursday in a series of tweets.

“This is also the first time since 2011 that exports have crossed the USD 2 billion mark for six consecutive months,” said Dawood. SAPM was of the view that the export growth of 29.3pc over March 2020 should not be considered as it is ‘misleading’ since there was a lockdown last year.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s imports in March 2021 grew to USD 5,313 million. The increase in import figures is mainly due to increased imports of petroleum, wheat, soybean, machinery, raw material and chemicals, mobiles, fertilizers, tyres, and antibiotics/vaccines in March 2021, informed the SAPM.

For the 9-month period of July-March 2021 of the current financial year (FY21), Pakistan’s exports increased by 7pc to USD 18.669 billion as compared to USD 17.451 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Meanwhile, during the same period, the country’s imports grew by 12pc to USD 39.210 billion in FY21 as compared to USD 34.817 billion in the same period last financial year. “This growth has come from an increase in import of raw material as well as the import of wheat, sugar, and cotton,” said Dawood.