Pakistan is likely to achieve record exports of around $25 billion at the conclusion of the current fiscal year. Though the major contributor in this endeavour has been the textile sector given escalating prices in the international market, other sectors have also made noteworthy contributions to the historical figure.
With an increase of almost 28.2 per cent during July 2010 to May 2011, Pakistan’s export value has jumped to over $24 billion against the $17.509 billion export figure recorded during the corresponding period last year. While keeping the momentum of export growth of over $2 billion mark since last six months and exports figure in May 2011 was recorded at $2.308 billion.
Pakistan’s exports during May 2011 were valued at $2.308 billion which was 33 per cent higher than the level of $1.736 billion during the same month last year. However the imports during May 2011 have also valued at $4.288 billion registering a growth of 27.5 per cent over the level of imports valued at $3.363 billion in May 2010.
Cumulative value of exports for the period July-May 2010-11 was $22.446 billion as against $ 17.509 billion registering a growth of 28.2 per cent over the same period last year. While, cumulative value of imports for the period July-May 2010-11 was $36.551 billion as against $31.486 billion registering a growth of 16.09 per cent, over the same period last year. Earlier, exports rose to $20.2 billion in July-April 2010-11 from $15.8 billion in the same period last year, registering a growth of 27.8 per cent. More importantly, the country also witnessed current account surplus of $748 million during the period under review mainly because of phenomenal increase in remittances, robust growth in exports and a stable exchange rate. Pakistan has been consistently crossing the $2 billion mark for the last six months of current financial year. According to experts, the country will easily break the previous record of $24 billion this year given the current robustness in exports in the next month. They said that as the country’s export value was being recorded over $2.0 billion a month the $24 billion expected figure was not a distant dream. Interestingly the country has already crossed the export figure of $19.3 billion recorded during 2009-2010 in at least 8 month of the outgoing financial year.
The cumulative value of exports for the period July-April 2010-11 was $20.18 billion against $15.773 billion registering a growth of 27.9 percent over the same period last year. Despite the economic slowdown of the western economies, it is all the more significant that Pakistan is on course to set new records of exports growth. According to the statistics the imports during April 2011 were valued at $3.247 billion registering a growth of 7.7 per cent over the level of imports valued at $3.016 billion in corresponding month last year. While the cumulative value of imports for the period of July-April 2010-11 was $32.263 billion in comparison to $28.123 billion last year, registering growth of 14.7 per cent over the same period last year. The trade deficit shrank by 34 per cent in April as compared to April last year which was also a positive sign for the current account position.
For the period April-July 2010-11, the trade deficit was marginally reduced by about two percent. The main reason of a surge in the export value was the increasing price of textile products in the international market and increasing competitiveness of the products of the local textile sector in the world market.
Analysis of the top 10 highest export value products during July 2010 to April 2011 show that the main drivers of this export were the textile sector which earned nearly $ 11.18 billion, showing 32.37 per cent growth; while the agro food sector also register the export value $1.7 billion with the growth of almost 91.19 percent as compared to the corresponding period last financial year. Similarly, the sectors of minerals and metals, engineering goods and other manufacturing groups, and leather sector have also registered strong growth of 32.92 percent, 16.98 percent and 25.95 percent respectively.
While other important export items such as bed wear, readymade garment, other rice varieties, petroleum top naphtha, rice basmati, raw cotton and towels, were among the top export items which have registered growth during the last 11 months.
