Islamabad: In the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year (FY23), the trade deficit of Pakistan shrank 35.51%, clocking in at $22.9 billion compared to $35.5 recorded in the same period last year.
According to the monthly statistics on trade Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), a massive drop has been observed in terms of imports as the total imports amounted to $43.946 billion compared to $58.859 billion recorded last year.
However, the total exports didn’t see any positive change either, as they also fell to $21.046 billion from $23.35 billion last year.
The massive shrink in the imbalance between exports and imports came due to steps taken by the incumbent government to ease the pressure on forex reserves by curbing the import of luxurious items during FY23.
In March alone, the trade deficit fell 59.75% as the imbalance between imports and exports amounted to $1.461 billion on a year-on-year basis.
On a month-on-month basis, however, exports increased in March, clocking in at $2.367 billion compared to $2.191 billion recorded in February of FY23.
It is pertinent to mention that the trade deficit of Pakistan recorded a whopping increase of 55.7% during the fiscal year 2022, taking the total imbalance between imports and exports to $48.38 billion.
However, the steps taken by the government to ban the import of unessential items have proven to be a remedy to decrease the pressure of trade imbalance.
