Pakistan’s trade deficit decreased by 35% in Q1 of fiscal year 2019

In the first quarter of this fiscal year (July-September), Pakistan’s trade deficit fell by 35%; to $5.72 billion from $8.79 billion and almost all of this decrement came from a fall in imports, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

As revealed by PBS, Pakistan’s exports saw an increase of 2.67% in September 2019, which translates to a growth of $1.76 billion as compared to $1.72 billion in September 2018.

PM Adviser on Finance, Hafeez Shaikh, shared this news on twitter stating that due to stabilisation, trade and tax measures the Government was able to fulfil its set task.

The imports also saw a healthy reduction during this period as they fell 13.90% and came down to $3.78 billion from $4.39 billion in the same period last year. As a result of this decrease in imports and increase in exports, the country’s trade deficit trickled down by 24.58% to $2.016 billion from $2.673 billion in the same period last year.

On month-on-month (MoM) basis, PBU revealed that Pakistani exports saw a reduction of 5% as in September 2019 as compared to August 2019, meaning the exports decreased to $1.769 billion compared to $1.862 billion in August 2018.
Pakistan’s imports also witnessed a growth of 1.42% from $3.732 billion to $3.785 billion which resulted in a growth of 7.81% in the trade deficit, i.e. to $2.016 billion from $1.870 billion.

Talking on quarterly terms, from July to September of 2019, the country’s exports saw an increment of 2.75% from $5.374 billion to $5.522 billion. On the other hand, the imports, saw a decrement of 20.6%, translating to $11.249 billion in July-September 2019 in contrast with $14.165 billion during the same period last year.