Pakistan’s trade deficit swelled to historic $29.99 billion during eleven months (July-May) of the ongoing financial year due to massive increase in imports and decline in exports.

The trade deficit, gap between exports and imports, enhanced by 42.12 percent and reached $29.99 billion during July-May period of FY2016-17 from $21.11 billion of the corresponding period of the last year. It was highest ever trade imbalance during eleven months of a financial year.

The latest figures of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed that imports increased by 20.6 percent to $48.54 billion during July-May period from $40.25 billion of the last year. However, the exports tumbled by 3.13 percent to $18.51 billion in eleven months of the current fiscal year from $19.14 billion of the same period of the previous year.

The eleven-month trade deficit is $10 billion more than the annual trade deficit target of $20.5 billion set by the finance ministry. The country’s current account deficit would touch $8.3 billion (2.7 percent of the GDP) during ongoing fiscal year due to the higher trade deficit. The trade deficit is increasing due to ever increase in imports and continuous decline in exports.