Footwear exports expand by 14.5 percent in 8 months

March 20, 2019: The footwear exports from the country witnessed an increase of 14.55 percent during the first eight months of the current fiscal year, as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Pakistan exported footwear worth $80.292 million during July-February (2018-19) against the exports of $70.093 million during July-February (2017-18), showing a growth of 14.55 percent, according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Among these, the exports of leather footwear witnessed a growth of 13.13 percent as it surged from $62.930 million during last fiscal year to $71.191 during the current year.

The canvas footwear exports from the country stood at just $0.079 million during the current year against $0.175 million during last year, showing decline of 54.86 percent.

However the exports of all other footwear commodities increased by 29.11 percent during the period under review as these went up from $6.988 million last year to $9.022 million during the current fiscal year.

On year-on-year basis, the footwear exports witnessed an increase of 3.78 percent during the month of February 2019 when compared to the same month of last year. The footwear exports during February 2019 were recorded at $11.029 million against the exports of $10.627 million in February 2018.

On the other hand, the month-on-month exports of footwear, however declined by 8.24 percent during February 2019 when compared to the exports of $12.019 million in January 2019, the PBS data revealed.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country's merchandize trade deficit plunged by 11.03 percent during July-February (2018-19) as the deficit contracted by over $2.668 billion to $21.523 billion during July-February (2018-19) against the deficit of $24.191 billion recorded during same period of the previous year.

The exports during the period under review witnessed an increase of 1.85 percent to $15.113 billion from $14.838 billion during July-February (2017-18).

On the other hand, the imports declined by 6.13 percent to $36.636 billion from $39.029 billion recorded during first eight months of current fiscal year, the data revealed.

(APP)