ISLAMABAD: The footwear exports from the country witnessed an increase of 13 per cent during the fiscal year 2019 compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Pakistan exported footwear worth $122.181 million during July-June (2018-19) against the exports of $108.125 million during July-June (2017-18), showing a growth of 13 per cent, according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Among these, the exports of leather footwear witnessed a growth of 12.03 per cent as it surged from $95.150 million during last fiscal year to $106.598 million during the current year.
The canvas footwear exports from the country stood at just $0.368 million during the current year against $0.230 million during last year, showing an increase of 60.73 per cent.
However, the exports of all other footwear commodities increased by 19.38 per cent during the period under review as these went up from $12.745 million last year to $15.215 million during the current fiscal year.
Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, the footwear exports increased by 12.91 per cent during the month of June 2019 when compared to the same month of last year. The footwear exports during 2019 were recorded at $12.045 million against the exports of $10.668 million in June 2018.
During the month under review, the leather footwear exports also increased by 9.69 per cent, canvas by 100 per cent whereas the exports of all other footwear commodities increased by 36.44 per cent.
On the other hand, the month-on-month exports of footwear witnessed an increase of 23.75 per cent during June 2019 when compared to the exports of $9.733 million in May 2019, PBS data revealed.
On a month-on-month basis, the exports of leather footwear increased by 27.78 per cent, canvas footwear by 480.95 per cent whereas the exports of all other footwear products however declined by 10.77 per cent.
It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s merchandise trade deficit plunged by 15.33 per cent during the fiscal year 2018-19 compared to the corresponding period of last year.
The trade deficit contracted to $31.820 billion during July-June (2018-19) against the deficit of $37.583 billion recorded during July-June (2017-18).
The exports during the period under review witnessed a decrease of one per cent by falling from $23.212 billion during last year to $22.979 billion during the ongoing fiscal year.
On the other hand, the imports declined by 9.86 per cent to $54.799 billion during the period under review from $60.795 billion last year, the data revealed.
On a year-on-year basis, the merchandise exports declined by 8.77 per cent, from $1.882 billion in June 2018 to $1.717 billion in June 2019 while the imports declined by 22.80 per cent from $5.652 billion in June 2018 to $4.364 billion in June 2019, the data revealed.
