KARACHI: Pakistan’s non-energy import bill showed a double-digit drop in the month of October, decreasing 12.5%.
The development was shared by Advisor to Prime Minister on Trade and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood in a tweet post on Tuesday. “Pleased to share that Pakistan’s non-energy import bill shrank by 12.5% in Oct 2021, i.e. by $624 million, compared to Sep 2021,” said the advisor.
Dawood added that this month-on-month (MoM) decline comes after positive growth in the previous two months. It is “a testament to actions by the government and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to curb imports,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s trade deficit rose by 104% to $15.525 billion during the first four months (July-October) 2021-22 from $7.617 billion in the corresponding period of the financial year 2020-21.
According to the Commerce Ministry, imports have posted growth of 64.5%, touching $25 billion during the first four months of the current fiscal year, against $15.193 billion during the same period of 2020-21, a difference of $9.801 billion during the period.
The country’s imports clocked in at $6.247 billion in October 2021 as compared to $3.907 billion in the same month of 2020, posting a growth of 60%. The trade deficit remained at $3.775 billion in October as compared to $1.803 billion in October 2020.
The Commerce Ministry maintained that during July-Oct 2021-22, imports increased by 64% to $24.99 billion compared to $15.19 billion during Jul-Oct 2020-21, claiming that about 40% of this increase is investment-driven (capital goods, raw material & intermediates) which indicates an expansion of industry and enhanced activity by industry.
