ISLAMABAD:\u00a0Pakistan\u2019s trade deficit widened to $14.5 billion during the first half of the ongoing fiscal year due to a steep decline in exports and double-digit growth in imports, torpedoing the government\u2019s external account projections.
\nThe gap between exports and imports during July-December period of fiscal year 2016-17 stood at $14.5 billion, reported the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Tuesday.
\nThe trade deficit was alarmingly 71% of the annual projections of $20.5 billion, suggesting that the government will face serious problems in meeting its external account targets.
\nJuly-November: Trade deficit widens to $11.8b, but exports in Nov pick up
\nThe exports plunged 3.82% to $9.9 billion during July-December period of this year, which was $394 million less than the exports made in the comparative period of the previous year.
\nCompared to this, the import bill increased 10.2% to almost $24.4 billion in the same period. In absolute terms, the import bill was $2.24 billion more than the previous year.
\nIn comparison to the $14.5 billion trade deficit during the first half of this year, the gap in the comparative period of the previous year was $11.9 billion, according to the PBS. The first-half trade deficit was $2.63 billion or 22.2% more than the previous year.
\nPakistan\u2019s trade deficit widens 22%, stands at $9.3 billion
\nFor fiscal year 2016-17, the government has projected exports would grow to $24.75 billion and imports bill may remain at $45.2 billion by end of this fiscal year. It had projected $20.5 billion trade deficit for the whole fiscal year. However, the six-month result showed that the deficit may touch $24 billion by end of the fiscal year, as the trade deficit in July-December period was 70.7% of the annual target.
\nThe government closed the last fiscal year 2015-16 at an eight-year low level of exports, which dropped to $20.8 billion despite preferential access to European markets. The exports have been declining since the current government took over, falling from $24.5 billion in 2012-13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD:\u00a0Pakistan\u2019s trade deficit widened to $14.5 billion during the first half of the ongoing fiscal year due to a steep decline in exports and double-digit growth in imports, torpedoing the government\u2019s external account projections. The gap between exports and imports during July-December period of fiscal year 2016-17 stood at $14.5 billion, reported the Pakistan Bureau […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\n