ISLAMABAD: The trade deficit of Pakistan has expanded to a record high level in 2021-22, hitting $48.6 billion mark.
In 2020-21, the trade deficit stood at $31 billion, which expanded beyond $48 billion in 2021-22, as the government’s measures to curb imports ended in failure amid record high value of dollar. In 2021-22, the trade deficit is higher by $17.6 billion in comparison with the quantum of deficit in 2020-21, $31 billion.
In 2021-22, the imports increased by 43.45pc, to $80.51bn, up from $56.12bn in 2020-21. In June 2022, the import bill surged to $7.74bn, from $6.28bn over the same month last year, reflecting an increase of 23.26pc.
The government has banned import of nearly 800 luxury and non-essential goods from May 19, but still there was no relief in the import bill. Even the depreciation of rupee to around Rs205 to a dollar in the inter-bank and Rs206 to 207 in the open market trading did not discourage imports.
At the beginning of 2022, the PTI government took some measures to contain unwanted increase in imports. Meanwhile, in May the coalition government led by PML(N) also announced additional measures against non-essential imports, but the government could not achieve the desired results.
In other words, the coalition government’s strategy against widening trade imbalance has failed and the deficit increased by 32.3pc in June 2022, to $4.84bn, from $3.66bn a year ago in the same month.
If the ongoing trend of imports prevailed further, it would cause a serious blow to the foreign exchange reserves and value of rupee against dollar and other major currencies.
In 2021-22, the export target was exceeded the target of $30 billion and amounted to $31.84 billion, showing 26.6pc growth over $25.160bn exports in 2020-21. In the month of June, the exports, however, demonstrated only 6.48pc growth amounting to $2.89bn, up from $2.72bn in June 2021.
