ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed by 33.18 percent to $21.3 billion during the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 as compared to $31.879 billion during the same period of last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.

The country’s exports during July-February (2022-23) were recorded at $18.793 billion against the exports of $20.573 billion in July-February of 2021-22, showing a decline of 8.65 percent, according to the trade data released by the PBS on Wednesday.

The imports decreased by 23.56 percent during the period under review by going down from $52.452 billion last year to $40.039 billion during the current year.

On a year-on-year basis, exports witnessed a decline of 18.67 percent and were recorded at $2.305 billion in February 2023 against the exports of $2.834 billion in February 2022.

The imports also decreased to $4.009 billion in February 2023 from $5.853 billion in February 2022, showing negative growth of 31.51 percent. The trade deficit narrowed by 43.56 per cent on a YoY basis to $1.704 billion in February 2023 compared to $3.019 billion in February 2022.

On a month-on-month basis, the exports during February 2023 increased by 2.72 percent when compared to the exports of $2.244 billion in January 2022. The imports decreased by 17.76 percent in February 2023 when compared to the imports of $4.875 billion in January 2022.

The trade deficit narrowed by 35.23 percent on a month-on-month basis and stood at $1.704 billion in February 2023 compared to $2.631 billion in January 2022.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023