ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s exports have declined by 54 percent in April 2020 owing to ongoing lockdown and cancellation of foreign orders.
According to trade data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) the exports were at $957 million in April 2020 as compared with $2.09 billion in the same month of the last year.
The massive decline in exports can be attributed to cancellation of foreign orders due to outbreak of coronavirus. Besides, the manufacturing activities were remained halted due to lockdown to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic.
The existing situation also reduced the import bill in the month under review. The imports fell by 34.5 percent to $3.09 billion in April 2020 as compared with $4.714 billion in April 2019.
The exports in first ten months (July – April) 2019/2020 also fell by four percent to $18.41 billion as compared with $19.16 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
On the other hand the import bill fell by 16.5 billion to $39.9 billion in the first ten months of current fiscal year as compared with $45.4 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The trade deficit shrank by 25.68 percent to $19.49 billion during July – April 2019/2020 as compared with the deficit of $26.23 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.
