Pakistan’s March trade deficit widens by only 5.5%

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit in the month of March 2022 increased by only 5.5 per cent due to higher growth of exports during the month.

According to data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday, the exports recorded a growth of 16 per cent to $2.74 billion in March 2022 as compared with $2.36 billion in the corresponding month of the last year.

On the other hand, import bill registered an increase of 10 per cent to $6.19 billion in the month of March 2022 as compared with $5.63 billion in the same month of the last year.

Therefore, the trade deficit for the month of March 2022 was recorded at $3.45 billion as compared with the deficit of $3.27 billion in March 2021, showing an increase of 5.5 per cent.

Overall the trade deficit widened by 70 per cent to $35.39 billion during first nine months (July – March) 2021/2022 as compared with the deficit of $20.8 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.

The exports of the country recorded an increase of 24.67 per cent to $23.3 billion during first nine months of the current fiscal year as compared with $18.7 billion in the same months of the last fiscal year.

Meanwhile, import bill registered an increase of 48.63 per cent to $58.69 billion during July – March 2021/2022 as compared with $39.49 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

The balance of trade registered a deficit of 11.63 per cent to $3.45 billion in March 2022 as compared with the deficit of $3.09 billion in February 2022.

The exports recorded a decline of 3 per cent to $2.74 billion in March 2022 as compared with $2.82 billion in February 2022.

However, import bill recorded 4.72 per cent increase to $6.19 billion in March 2022 when compared with $5.9 billion in the previous month of 2022.