In May 2023, Pakistan experienced a significant expansion of its trade deficit, which increased by 142.91 percent compared to the previous month. The trade deficit reached $2.089 billion, marking a substantial rise from the $860 million recorded in April 2023. This information was disclosed by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
However, despite this recent increase, the trade deficit actually narrowed by 40.59 percent during the first eleven months (July-May) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23). It stood at $25.791 billion, a notable improvement compared to the $43.409 billion reported during the same period last year.
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The trade data released by PBS indicates that Pakistan’s exports from July to May in FY23 amounted to $25.366 billion. This represents a decline of 12.14 percent when compared to the exports of $28.871 billion during the corresponding period in FY22.
Conversely, imports decreased by 29.22 percent over the 11-month period, dropping from $72.280 billion in the previous year to $51.157 billion in the current year.
Looking at the year-on-year basis, the exports in May 2023 experienced a decline of 16.69 percent, amounting to $2.186 billion, in contrast to the exports of $2.624 billion reported in May 2022.
Likewise, imports in May 2023 decreased to $4.275 billion from $6.760 billion in May 2022, reflecting a negative growth rate of 36.76 percent. Consequently, the trade deficit narrowed by 49.49 percent on a year-on-year basis, with May 2023 reporting a trade deficit of $2.089 billion compared to $4.136 billion in May 2022.
On a month-on-month comparison, exports in May 2023 increased by 2.29 percent compared to April 2023, amounting to $2.137 billion. In contrast, imports into the country showed a significant increase of 42.64 percent in May 2023, totaling $2.997 billion, compared to the imports of $2.137 billion in April 2023, according to the provided data.