ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed by 40.59% to $25.791 billion during the first 11 months (July-May) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 as compared to $43.409 billion during the same period of last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.

The trade deficit widened by 142.91% on a month-on-month basis and stood at $2.089 billion in May 2023 compared to $860 million in April 2022.

The country’s exports during July-May (2022-23) were recorded at $25.366 billion against exports of $28.871 billion in July-May of 2021-22, a decline of 12.14%, according to the trade data released by the PBS on Friday.

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

The imports decreased by 29.22% during the period under review by going down from $72.280 billion last year to $51.157 billion during the current year.

On a year-on-year basis, exports witnessed a decline of 16.69% and were recorded at $ 2.186 billion in May 2023 against the exports of $ 2.624 billion in May 2022.

The imports also decreased to $4.275 billion in May 2023 from $6.760 billion in May 2022, showing negative growth of 36.76%. The trade deficit narrowed by 49.49% on a YoY basis to $2.089 billion in May 2023 compared to $4.136 billion in May 2022.

On a month-on-month basis, the exports during May 2023 increased by 2.29% when compared to the exports of $2.137 billion in April 2023. The imports increased by 42.64% in May 2023 when compared to the imports of $2.997 billion in April 2023, according to the data.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023