February 22, 2019: The footwear exports from the country surged by 16.45 percent during the first seven months of the current fiscal to $69.248 million compared to the exports of $59.465 million during the corresponding period of last year, according to official data.
Among the footwear products, the exports of leather footwear increased by 16.09 percent by going up from the trade of $53.347 million during July-January (2017-18) to $61.932 million in July-January (2018-19), according to the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
However, the exports of canvas footwear decreased from $0.113 million to $0.064 million during the period under review.
The exports of all other footwear increased by 20.77 percent, from $6.005 million last year to $7.252 million during the current fiscal year.
The footwear exports on year-on-year basis, increased by 27.63 percent in January 2019 to $12.019 million compared to the exports of $9.417 million in January 2018.
During the month under review the leather footwear exports increased by 32.83 percent, however the exports of canvas footwear and other footwears decreased by 12.5 percent and 13.01 percent respectively.
On month-on-month basis, the total footwear exports, however increased by 5.75 percent in January 2019 when compared to the exports of $11.366 million in December 2018, the PBS data revealed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the country's overall merchandize trade deficit plunged by 9.66 percent during July-January (2018-19) as the deficit contracted by over $2 billion to $19.264 billion in the period under review against the deficit of $21.324 billion recorded during same period of the previous year.
The exports during the period of current fiscal year also witnessed an increase of 2.24 percent to $13.231 billion from $12.941 billion during last year while the imports declined by 5.17 percent to $32.495 billion from $34.265 billion during first seven months of current fiscal year, PBS reported.
On the other hand, services trade deficit shrank by 29.11 percent during the first half of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year.
The services trade deficit during July-December (2018-19) was recorded at $1.945 billion against the deficit of $2.744 billion during July-December (2017-18), showing decline of 29.11 percent, the data revealed.
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