Exports of $24 billion in sights

For the first time ever in the country’s history, exports have crossed the $20 billion mark in the first 10 months of the current financial year. According to statistics provided by Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), Pakistan’s exports in April 2011 were recorded at $2.38 billion, 40 percent higher than the level of $1.7 billion in April 2010.
Pakistan has been consistently crossing the $2.0 billion mark for the last five months of current financial year. According to official sources in TDAP, the country is likely to achieve record exports of $24 billion this year given the current resilience in exports. Sources said that as the country’s export value was being recorded over $2.0 billion a month this year, it was likely to at least fetch $24 billion in exports during 2010-2011 against the recorded figure of $19.3 billion during 2009-2010.
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 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 percent 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.