Trade deficit widened by 70.1 percent during the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year, 2021-22, and reached $35.393 billion compared to $20.802 billion during the same period of 2020-21, revealed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data.

According to the PBS monthly summary on foreign trade statistics for March 2022, the country’s exports declined by 2.8 percent on month-on-month basis in March 2022 and remained $2.74 billion compared to $2.82 billion in February 2022.

The country’s exports increased by 24.6 percent and remained $23.298 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, 2021-22, compared to $18.687 billion during the same period of 2020-21.

Imports increased by 48.6 percent during the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year and stood at $58.691 billion compared to $39.489 billion during the same period of the corresponding year, the PBS stated.

According to the PBS, the country’s trade deficit widened by 5.4 percent on year-on-year basis, jumping from $3.267 billion in March 2021 to $3.446 billion in March 2022.

Imports registered an increase of 9.8 percent on year-on-year basis and jumped from $5.631 billion in March 2021 to $6.186 billion in March 2022.

Further, exports registered 15.9 percent growth on year-on-year basis and increased from $2.364 billion in March 2021 to $2.74 billion in March 2022.

According to the PBS data, trade deficit widened by 11.6 percent on month-on-month basis from $3.087 billion in February 2022 to $3.446 billion in March 2022.

Imports increased by 4.7 percent on month-on-month basis and remained $6.186 billion in March 2022 compared to $5.907 billion in February 2022.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on April 05, 2022.