ISLAMABAD: Despite declining trend of competitiveness of a number of export items in the international markets since last five years, exports have increased in the first half of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year (July 2016-January 2017.
“The stagnation in the major world economies led to low demand of Pakistani goods. According WTO the total world exports have declined by 3.3% in 2016-17. The decline in export is an outcome of a combination of both endogenous and exogenous factors,” sources privy to the Minister of Commerce told Customs Today on Saturday.
“The exogenous factors include economic slowdown, shift in demand, change of taste and preferences, depreciation of Euro against the US dollar, lowered demand of by key market,” the sources maintained, saying that all these factors played major role in constraining Pakistan’s export growth as these factors also slowed down the major economies of the world including China and European Union.
“There are a number of endogenous factors that are affecting Pakistani exports competitiveness in the region and these areas of concern require immediate redressal to restore positive trajectory of the exports,” the sources said, counting the endogenous factors including, low production and high local demand, supply side constraints, low investment in export sector, market concentration, lack of value addition, trade facilitation, narrow export basket, policy conflict and others.
The sources said that export of cotton and certain food products declined mainly due to low domestic production. Export of raw cotton decreased by 43.15% cotton yarn by 1.67%, fruits by 10.80% and vegetables by 13.27%.
Similarly, the sources said that local demand of cement reduced availability of surpluses due to increase in local demand caused by China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) related development and infrastructure projects and enhanced allocations for public sector development program (PSDP) for the current fiscal year.
