Recent data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has shown that the country's trade deficit has witnessed a whopping 33.59% with a notable 17.3% decrease in imports as the country struggles to improve the economic indicators amid depreciating local currency and depleting foreign exchange reserves.
Pakistan's trade deficit from July to November (FY2023-24) has been recorded at $9.3 billion against the $14.12 billion trade deficit for July to November (FY22-23).
Imports have also witnessed a significant decrease and stand at $21.5 billion against last year's $26 billion for the same period.
Furthermore, the country's exports — reflecting 1.93% growth — were recorded at $12.17 billion against the $11.9 billion exports during the corresponding period of last year.
On a year-on-year basis, the exports from the country increased by 7.66% in November compared to the exports of the same month of last year.
The exports during the month were recorded at $2.57 billion against the exports of $2.38 billion in November 2022.
On the other hand, the imports during November 2023 were recorded at $4.46 billion compared to the imports of $5.15 billion in November 2022, showing a decrease of 13.47%.
On a month-on-month basis, the exports from the country decreased by 4.39 % when compared to the exports of $2.69 billion during October 2023.
The imports into the country went down by 8.31% when compared to the imports of $4.864 billion in October 2023.
Meanwhile, the services exports during July-October (2023-24) earned foreign exchange worth $2.4 billion as compared to exports of $2.33 billion during the same period of last year, showing growth of 3.34%.
The services' imports into the country also increased by 19.57% going up from $2.7 billion last year to $3.2 billion during the first four months of the current fiscal year.
Based on the figures, the services trade deficit increased by 116.66% during the period under review going up from $390 million last year to $847 million this year.
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