Pharmaceutical exports increase 23.62pc in 1st half of FY 2020-21

ISLAMABAD: The exports of pharmaceutical products from the country witnessed an increase of 23.62 percent during the first half of ongoing financial year (2020-21) as compared to the exports of corresponding period of last year.

The pharmaceutical exports were recorded at US $138.751 million during July-December (2020-21) as against the export of US $112.238 million during July-December (2019-20), showing growth of 23.62 percent, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

In terms of quantity, the exports of pharmaceutical products also increased by 31.61 percent by going up from 7,428 metric tons to 9,776 metric tons, according to the data.

Meanwhile, year- on- year basis the pharmaceutical goods export increased by 26.53 percent during the month of December 2020 as compared to the same month of last year.

The pharmaceutical exports in December 2020 were recorded at US $24.700 million against the export of $19.521 million in December 2019, the PBS data revealed.

On month- on- month basis, the exports of pharmaceutical witnessed nominal increase of 1.07 percent in December 2020 when compared to $24.438 million in November 2020.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s trade deficit witnessed an increase of 5.93 percent during the first six months of financial year 2020-21 as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The exports witnessed increase of 5.09% and reached to $12.110 billion against the exports of $11.524 billion of the same period of last year.

On the other hand, the country’s imports also rose by 5.51% and went up from $23.195 billion last fiscal year to $24.473 billion of same period of fiscal year 2020-21.

Based on the figures, the trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at $12.363 billion against the deficit of $11.671 billion during last year, showing increase of 5.93 percent.