Pakistan likely to exceed export target

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KARACHI – Pakistan is likely to fetch exports of $22 billion during the financial year 2010-2011 and exceed the export target of $21.5 billion set for the year.
Pakistan has already achieved the over 19 percent increase in export in the last five months of the financial year, while targets set by the ministry of commerce would easily be surpassed in the remaining months, experts viewed. They believed that rising competitiveness of Pakistani companies was the primary reason for a boost in exports. The country’s exports reached approximately $19.5 billion in 2009-10 as compared to $17.688 billion a year earlier, showing an increase of around 10 percent.
According to the Statistics of Federal Bureau, country’s exports have augmented by 19 percent in July-November 2010-11 as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year. Pakistan’s exports during November, 2010 were valued at $1.78 billion, which was 17 percent higher than exports of $1.52 billion achieved during the same month last year. The cumulative value of exports in July-November, 2010 was $8.95 billion as against $7.53 billion during the corresponding period last year, registering a growth of 19 percent. However, the country’s imports also swelled by 43 percent in November 2010 and reached $3.13 billion, compared to imports of $2.19 billion in November, 2009.
The report revealed that the cumulative value of imports in July-November 2010 was $15.38 billion compared to $12.75 billion in the same period last year, posting a growth of 21 percent, over the same period last year.
Exports in October 2010 stood at $1.98 billion compared to $1.57 billion in the corresponding month last year. Cumulative value of exports for the period July-October 2010 was recorded at $7.168 billion, while the value of same period in the last financial year was $6.015 billion.
Exports in July and August 2010 stood at $1.788 billion and $1.772 billion respectively which were almost 21 percent higher than the export of same periods last year. However, exports underwent slender increase of 7.3 percent in September 2010.
Imports in October 2010 increased by 8.38 percent and stood at $3.220 billion in comparison to imports of $2.971 billion in the same month last year. Imports during July -October, 2010 aggregated to $12.249 billion as against $10.558 billion during the corresponding period of last year, showing an increase of 16.02 percent.
Out of the cumulative export of $7.168 billion during July-October 2010, the textile and clothing sector possess a share of $4.141 billion. The current resilience of exports has forced experts to believe that the country would easily achieve the 10 percent growth target set by the Ministry of Commerce for the year 2010-2011.
In the three years trade policy under the Strategic Trade Policy Framework (STPF), the ministry had proposed at least six percent for the fiscal year 2009-10 and 10 and 13 percent for each of the successive years.