THE country’s trade deficit widened 29% to $6 billion in just two months of this fiscal year due to stagnant exports and a double-digit jump in imports.
According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the gap between imports and exports reached $6 billion during July-August this year, $1.4 billion more than the comparative period of the last fiscal year.
The data shows alarming trends as imports during the first two months of the current financial year reached $11.1 billion (14.2% growth) whereas exports were almost stagnant at $5.1 billion (hardly 0.7% more than the comparative period last fiscal). There was something seriously wrong with the policies of the successive governments as these could not materialize hopes about a meaningful growth of exports and instead encouraged more imports. It is all the more regrettable that the people of Pakistan were burdened with unprecedented price-hike due to massive devaluation of the currency on the pretext of boosting exports but exports could not increase. The situation will not change until and unless we take prudent and verifiable measures to boost production, create quality surplus for exports and bring down the cost of doing business. Pakistan has an opportunity to increase exports as the United States has imposed the regions lowest tariff on the country for imports but this also depends on the above factors. It is also unfortunate that on the one hand the Government is imposing all sorts of taxes on its people but on the other hand it has started implementing so-called tariff reforms that would make Pakistan a dumping ground of foreign goods at the cost of indigenous production besides digesting the loaned foreign exchange.
