Footwear exports rise by 11.42pc in 3 quarters

ISLAMABAD: The footwear exports from the country witnessed an increase of 11.42 percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Pakistan exported footwear worth US $ 90.068 million during July-March (2018-19) against the exports of US $ 80.834 million during July-March (2017-18), showing a growth of 11.42 percent, according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Among these, the exports of leather footwear witnessed a growth of 10.01 percent as it surged from US $ 72.073 million during last fiscal year to US $ 79.285 million during the current year.

The canvas footwear exports from the country stood at just US $ 0.075 million during the current year against US $ 0.191 million during last year, showing decline of 60.73 percent.

However, the exports of all other footwear commodities increased by 24.95 percent during the period under review as these went up from US $ 8.570 million last year to US $ 10.708 million during the current fiscal year.

Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the footwear exports decreased by 9.15 percent during the month of March 2019 when compared to the same month of last year. The footwear exports during 2019 were recorded at US $ 9.758 million against the exports of US $ 10.741 million in March 2018.

During the month under review, the leather footwear exports decreased by 10.95 percent, canvas by 100 percent, however that of all other footwear commodities increased by 2.21 percent.

On the other hand, the month-on-month exports of footwear, witnessed  decreased of 11.52 percent during March 2019 when compared to the exports of US $ 11.029 million in February 2019, the PBS data revealed.

On month-on-month basis, the exports of leather footwear decreased by 13.91 percent, canvas footwear by 100 percent whereas the exports of all other footwear products witnessed an increase of 3.71 percent.

It is pertinent to mention here that the the country's merchandize trade deficit plunged by 13.02 percent during July-March (2018-19) as the deficit contracted by over US $ 3.544 billion to $23.672 billion in the period under review against the deficit of US $ 27.216 billion recorded during same period of the previous year.

The exports during the period under review witnessed an increase of 0.11% to US $ 17.08 billion from US $ 17.064 billion during July-March (2017-18).

On the other hand, the imports declined by 7.96% to US $ 40.755 billion from US $ 44.281 billion recorded during first nine months of current fiscal year, the data revealed.