Pakistan’s trade deficit has widened by 17.96 percent, as it recorded at $13.13 billion during July-January of FY2015 versus $11.13 billion of the corresponding period of previous year, as per the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
It widened as the pace of imports are on the declining side due to the deteriorated power crisis. The trade deficit is widening every month due to continuous decline in exports against the imports. Pakistan exports had recoded at $14.14 billion during July-January of FY2015 as against $14.68 billion of the same period of last year showing decline of 3.69 percent.
Likewise, the imports had increased by 5.7 percent, as Pakistan imported commodities worth $27.27 billion during July-January of FY2015 as compare to $25.81 billion of the same period previous year. The impact of the declining oil prices had started appearing in the trade figures, as imports only in the January month had decreased by over 20 percent over December 2014.
As per the PBS data, exports registered a decrease of 4.27 percent, as country exported goods worth $2.064 billion in January 2015 as against $2.156 billion of its previous month of December 2014. Meanwhile, the imports recorded decline of 20.63 per cent, as imports stood at $3.063 billion in January 2015 as compared to $3.86 billion of the December 2014. Therefore, the trade deficit has shown decline of 41.34 per cent, as it was recorded at $999 million in January 2015 as against $1.7 billion of December 2014.
