Trade deficit widens to $5.114 billion for first quarter

Country''s trade deficit increased to $5.114 billion for the first quarter of current fiscal year, up by 28.78 per cent over $3.971 billion for the same period of last year, according to Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS).
Provisional trade figures for July-September 2011-12 released by the FBS showed that imports of $11.117 billion are almost twice the $6.003 exports may have been a source of concern for the economic managers on external side especially after the country was no longer in the IMF program.
Analysts say that any decline in foreign exchange reserves following rising trade gap is feared to have negative impact on exchange rate already under pressure and may be adjusted due to relatively higher inflation in Pakistan compared to other regional countries.
As a result, the country may again face the situation like 2008 when the economic managers were compelled by the fast declining foreign exchange reserves to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package. Analysis of the date showed that country imported goods worth $11.117 billion during July-September 2011-12 as against the imports of $9.029 billion in the same period of last fiscal year, indicating an increase of 23.13%.
Analysis of data month over month showed that trade deficit in the September 2011 over the same month of previous year increased by 50.34%, or $1.786 billion following imports of $3.622 billion against $1.836 billion exports. However, the import and exports for the same period showed a growth of 30.24 and 15.25 per cent respectively over the same period of last year. Exports during September 2011 amounted to $1.836 billion as compared to exports of $1.593 billion in 2010 and imports increased to $3.622 billion in September 2011 as compared to the $2.781 billion in September 2010.
Country''s exports have recorded a negative growth and declined by 6.52% in September 2011 over previous month. The exports in September 2011 declined to $1.836 billion from $1.964 billion in August 2011. The declining trend was also witnessed in imports. The imports after a decline of 4.83 per cent in September 2011 over previous month reached at $3.622 billion from $3.806 billion in August 2011. Trade deficit during September 2011 was recorded $1.786 billion, down by 3.04% over $1.842 billion for the month of August 2011.