ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed by 31.97 percent to $19.632 billion during the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 as compared to $28.859 billion during the same period of last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.

The country’s exports during July-January (2022-23) were recorded at $16.469 billion against the exports of $17.739 billion in July-January of 2021-22, showing a decline of 7.16per cent, according to the trade data released by PBS on Thursday.

The imports decreased by 22.53 per cent during the period under review by going down from $46.598 billion last year to $36.101 billion during the current year.

On a year-on-year basis, exports witnessed a decline of 15.42per cent and were recorded at $2.211 billion in January 2023 against the exports of $2.614 billion in January 2022.

Jul-Dec trade deficit declines 32.65pc to $17.13bn YoY

The imports also decreased to $4.856 billion in January 2023 from $6.036 billion in January 2022, showing negative growth of 19.55per cent. The trade deficit narrowed by 22.71 per cent on a YoY basis to $2.645 billion in January 2023 compared to $3.422 billion in January 2022.

On a month-on-month basis, the exports during January 2023 declined by 4.41 per cent when compared to the exports of $2.313 billion in December 2022. The imports into the country decreased 5.78 per cent in January 2023 when compared to the imports of $5.154 billion in December 2022, according to the data.

The trade deficit narrowed by 6.90per cent on a month-on-month basis and stood at $2.645 billion in January 2023 compared to $2.841 billion in December 2022.

According to the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), the country’s textile group exports declined to $1.36 billion in January 2023 as compared to $1.55 billion during the same period last year registering 12 per cent decline.

The data on textile exports released by the Association (APTMA) revealed that on MoM basis, the textile group exports were$1.36 billion in December 2022.

The exports in December 2022 stood at $1.36 billion as compared to $1.42 billion in November 2022. Textile exports stood at $10.08 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to $10.93 billion during the same period of last year, registering a decline of 8 per cent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023