ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed by 39.62 percent to $ 23.713 billion during the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 as compared to $ 39.272 billion during the same period of last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.

The country’s exports during July-April (2022-23) were recorded at $ 23.174 billion against exports of $ 26.247 billion in July-April of 2021-22, a decline of 11.71 percent, according to the trade data released by PBS on Tuesday.

The imports decreased by 28.44 percent during the period under review by going down from $ 65.519 billion last year to $ 46.887 billion during the current year.

Jul-Mar trade deficit shrinks 35.51pc to $22.9bn YoY

On a year-on-year basis, exports witnessed a decline of 26.68 percent and were recorded at $ 2.124 billion in April 2023 against the exports of $ 2.897 billion in April 2022.

The imports also decreased to $ 2.953 billion in April 2023 from $ 6.661 billion in April 2022, showing negative growth of 55.67 percent. The trade deficit narrowed by 77.98 percent on a YoY basis to $ 829 million in April 2023 compared to $3.764 billion in April 2022.

On a month-on-month basis, the exports during April 2023 decreased by 10.46 percent when compared to the exports of $2.372 billion in March 2023. The imports into the country decreased by 22.62 percent in April 2023 when compared to the imports of $3.816 billion in March 2023, according to the data.

The trade deficit narrowed by 42.59 percent on a month-on-month basis and stood at $ 829 million in April 2023 compared to $ 1.444 billion in March 2022.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023