Despite the government’s efforts to increase the country’s exports during the current fiscal year, the exports have actually declined further by 12.92 per cent to $15.606 billion in the first 9 months of the current fiscal year (July-March 2015-16) from $17.921 billion during the same period last year.
The Ministry of Commerce announced the trade policy in the last week of March after a delay of almost 9 months and set a target of $35 billion by 2018, but analysts claim that if the government continues with such practices, it would be very hard to achieve this target.
Mohammad Saad, an analyst at Topline brokerage house said, “The federal government may achieve $21-$22 billion through the exports receipts which is enough to keep the external account stable in the current fiscal year.” The country will also receive above $18-$19 billion through the workers’ remittances while the total imports and the oil prices have been declining, which would also support the external account.
On month-on-month basis, the country’s exports decreased by 2.74 per cent and stood at $1.742 billion in March 2016 compared to $1.791 billion in February 2016, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data revealed on Tuesday. However, on year-on year basis, the exports declined by 9.55 per cent in March 2016 compared to $1.926 billion in March 2015.
Meanwhile, the country’s total imports fell by 4.22 per cent to $32.515 billion during July-Mar this year from $33.948 billion during the same period last year.
On year-on-year basis, imports increased by 3.78 per cent in March 2016. The imports were recorded at $3.594 billion in March 2016, which stood at $3.464 billion in March 2015. On month-on-month basis, the imports of the country increased by 8.78 per cent to $3.594 billion in March 2016 compared $3.304 billion in February 2016.
The trade deficit in July-March 2015-16 increased by 5.50 per cent to $16.909 billion from $16.027 billion during the same period last year. In March 2016, trade deficit increased by 22.41 per cent on MoM basis due to the increasing imports.
