Islamabad
Pakistan’s trade deficit during the first 11 months (July-May) of the current fiscal year 2020-21 has surged by 29.48 percent to $27.275 billion as compared to $21.065 billion over the same period of the last financial year.
According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), between July and May FY21, the import bill increased by 22 percent to $49.839 billion this year as against $40.866 billion over the corresponding months of the last financial year.
On the other hand, the exports increased 14 percent to $22.6 billion in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.
The trade deficit for the month of May 2021 was recorded at $3.43 billion against $1.46 billion recorded in May 2020, showing a massive increase of 134 percent. The deficit remained $2.99 billion in April 2021.
The import bill went up by 77.8 percent to $5.090 billion in May 2021 from $2.863 billion over the corresponding month of last year. On a month-on-month basis, the import bill decreased by 3.23 percent.—TLTP
