Pakistan’s trade deficit swells to $3.9bn in Oct, up by 2.17x YoY

November 3, 2021 (MLN): Pakistan's merchandise trade deficit for the month of October 2021 clocked in at $3.9billion compared to a deficit of $1.79bn in the corresponding month last year, depicting a growth of 117.2% YoY.

The widening of the trade gap is mainly attributed to exponential growth in imports and comparatively slow growth in exports.

However, compared to the previous month’s deficit of $4.2bn, the trade deficit improved by 7.14%.

According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), exports increased by 1.58% to $2.45bn compared to $2.4bn in Sep’2021. While on yearly basis, the exports exhibited a growth of 16.5% from $2.1bn in Oct 2020.

In terms of Rupees, exports from Pakistan during Oct 2021 amounted to Rs421.32bn as against Rs404.9bn (provisional) in Sep 2021 and Rs342bn during Oct 2020, showing an increase of 4% over Sep 2021 and 23% over Oct 2020.

On the other hand, Imports in Oct’21 plummeted by 3.96%, clocking in at $6.33bn compared to $6.59bn in the previous month.  While compared to the corresponding month previous year, the imports showed a significant increase of 62.8% from $3.89bn reported in Oct 2020.

In Rupee terms, Imports into Pakistan during Oct 2021 amounted to Rs1.09tn as against Rs1.1tn in Sep 2021 and Rs633.2bn during Oct 2020, indicating a jump of 1.62% over Sep 2021 and 72.2% over Oct 2020.

Cumulatively, during July-Oct FY22, Pakistan’s trade deficit was $15.6bn compared to a deficit of $7.6bn in the corresponding period of FY21.

Overall, the 4-month exports stood at $9.44bn compared to $7.57bn in 4MFY21, showing a jump of 24.7% YoY. Similarly, Imports during the period increased by 65% to $25bn compared to $15.17bn in the same period of FY21.

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