November 19, 2019 (MLN): With all the buzz surrounding the advent of much-awaited Current Account Surplus after nearly four years, very little thought has been put into what actually made this miracle happen! And thus, by having a thorough look at the details published by PBS, it is clear that the transport group was the scapegoat in this entire scenario.
Quite honestly, the decision to curtail the import within the transport group was inevitable, as the auto sector in Pakistan has not been really making any significant mark with respect to volumetric sales. And quite honestly again, the auto sector cannot be blamed for this as the ongoing economic slowdown has taken a serious toll on its performance.
The transport group imports during the month of October 2019 amounted to $108.3 million, i.e. around 50.25% less as compared to the imports of the previous month and 56.13% less as compared to the same month of last year.
The cumulative import during the first four months of current Fiscal Year totaled 646.19 million, i.e. down by 37.76% as compared to $1.03 billion recorded in the corresponding period of last year.
Within the transport group, the major curtailment was done in the import of CKD/SKD by 60.16% YoY, followed by Completely Built Units (CBUs) by 59.42% and Build Units by 59.42% during the month of October.
