ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has narrowly missed the exports target set for the first four months of this financial year. During Jul-Oct period of FY22, exports amounted to $9.49 billion against the quarterly target of $9.6 billion.
On an average, Pakistan earned $2.36 billion through exports which was below the expectations.
Trade deficit in first four months, nonetheless, surged beyond $15 billion as imports expanded to $25 billion while exports stood at only $9.46 billion during July-Oct period of this financial year.
Adviser to prime minister on commerce and trade Razzak Dawood himself has reported that the exports remained below the target in first four months of FY22.
In October 2021, the target of exports was also missed as exports increased to $2.47 billion, but missed the target of $2.6 billion.
However, in first four months the exports grew by 25%, mounting to $9.468 million as compared to $7.57 billion during Jul-Oct 2020.
Pakistan’s exports in October 2021 grew by 17.5% to $2.471 billion — the highest ever export recorded in any Oct 2021.
An alarming issue is that the national imports expanded by 64 percent during Jul-Oct 2021 and increased to $25 billion as against to $15.2 billion during Jul-Oct 2020. Thus, in US dollars the imports surged by $10 billion. About 40% of this increase was investment-driven (capital goods, raw material and intermediates) which indicates expansion and enhanced activity by industry.
The remaining 60% of imports comprise petroleum, coal and gas 34%, vaccines 11%, food 8%, consumer goods 2%, and all others 5%. Most of this was inelastic in nature.
In absolute terms, the net increase in imports over this period was $9.801 billion. Of this, consumer goods were worth $239 million, food $823 million, capital goods $1,620 million, raw material and intermediates $2,209 million, petroleum, coal and gas $3,364 million, vaccines $1,068 million and all others $478 million.
