Quoting exports figures, chief executive Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Tariq Iqbal Puri said here Monday that total value of exports grew by 27.9 percent to $ 20.18 billion during July-April 2010-11 as against $ 15.773 billion in the same period last year.

He pointed out that Pakistan's exports in the month of April 2011 were higher by 40 percent to $ 2.38 billion, than the level of $ 1.7 billion during April 2010.

Pakistan has been consistently crossing the $ 2 billion mark for the last 5 months of current financial year, he added.

He said that as a result of Prime Minister of Pakistan declaring 2011 as "Year of Export", the Ministry of Commerce and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, through coordinated efforts, have succeeded in achieving the landmark figure.

Despite the economic slowdown of the western economies, it is all the more significant that Pakistan is on course to set new records of exports growth.

To build on this landmark achievement, Puri stated, that TDAP is accelerating its efforts and taking out-of- box measures to achieve a possible $ 24 billion exports by the end of this financial year.

He informed that imports during April 2011 were valued at $ 3.247 billion registering a growth of 7.7 per cent over the level of imports valued at $ 3.016 billion in April 2010.

However, the trade deficit shrunk in April by 34% compared to April last year, which is also a positive sign for our current account.

The cumulative value of imports for the period July-April 2010-11 was $ 32.263 billion as against $ 28.123 billion last year, showing a growth of 14.7 per cent over the corresponding period of last year. For the period April-July 2010-11, the trade deficit was marginally reduced by about 2percent.