Islamabad, August 2, 2023 – The latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) indicates a significant decline in the country’s exports by 12.68% in July 2023, as compared to the previous month.
During the first month of the fiscal year 2023-24, exports dropped to $2.057 billion, down from $2.356 billion in June 2023, reflecting the challenging economic situation. On a positive note, the trade deficit showed improvement by 13.35% on a Month on Month (MoM) basis, reaching $1.607 billion in July 2023, compared to $1.863 billion in June 2023. This narrowing of the trade deficit can be attributed to a decline of 13.15% in imports during the same period, which amounted to $3.664 billion in July 2023, compared to $4.219 billion in June 2023.
Analyzing the data on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, exports experienced an 8.57% decline, with July 2023 recording $2.057 billion worth of exports, in contrast to $2.250 billion in July 2022. Furthermore, imports also saw a considerable decrease of 26.44% on a YoY basis, reaching $3.664 billion in July 2023, down from $4.981 billion in July 2022. As a result, the trade deficit showed a significant improvement of 41.16% YoY, amounting to $1.607 billion in July 2023, compared to $2.731 billion in July 2022.
These figures indicate the challenges faced by Pakistan’s economy in the context of international trade, and the government may need to implement measures to boost exports and balance the trade deficit in the coming months.
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