Trade deficit narrows by 27pc in 2019/2020

Trade deficit narrows by 27pc in 2019/2020

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed by 27 percent to $23.18 billion in fiscal year 2019/2020 as against the deficit of $31.8 billion in the preceding fiscal year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Friday.

The import bill of the country significantly declined by 18.61 percent to $44.57 billion during July – June 2019/2020 as compared with $54.76 billion in the same period of the preceding year.

The exports also fell by 6.84 percent to $21.38 billion in the fiscal year 2019/2020 as compared with $22.95 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

The fall in import bill and export receipts may be attributed to COVID-19 which adversely affected the international trade and lower forecast the global economic growth.