Trade deficit declines for the third consecutive month in February

March 03, 2022 (MLN): Pakistan's merchandise trade deficit for the month of February 2022 clocked in at $3.1 billion compared to a deficit of $3.4bn in the previous month, depicting a decline of 9.7% MoM as imports declined by 2.3% MoM, data issued by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed.

This is the third consecutive monthly decline in the deficit from its peak in November 2021 when the trade deficit was at $5bn.

However, compared to the same month last year’s deficit of $2.5bn, the trade deficit soared by 22% YoY.

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

According to data released by the PBS, exports increased by 7.4% to $2.8bn compared to $2.6bn in Jan’2022. While on yearly basis, the exports exhibited a growth of 36% from $2bn in Feb'21.

In terms of Rupees, exports from Pakistan during Feb'22 amounted to Rs493.8bn as against Rs460.8bn in Jan’22 and Rs329bn during Feb’21, showing an increase of 7% over Jan’22 and 50% over Feb'21.

On the other hand, imports in Feb’22 plummeted by 2.3%, clocking in at $5.9bn compared to $6bn in the previous month.  While compared to the corresponding month previous year, the imports showed an increase of 28.3% from $4.6bn reported in Feb’21.

In Rupee terms, imports into Pakistan during Feb’21 amounted to Rs1.04tn as against Rs1.06tn in Jan’22 and Rs732bn during Feb’21, indicating a dip of 2.5% over last month and a jump of 42% over Feb’21.

Cumulatively, during July-Feb FY22, Pakistan’s trade deficit was $31.95bn compared to a deficit of $17.5bn in the corresponding period of FY21.

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