The trade deficit widened by 10.64 percent to $17.536 billion in the first eight months (July–February) of the current fiscal year 2020-21 when compared to the deficit of $15.85 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.
According to the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, the import bill for the month of February 2021 increased to $4.56 billion as compared with $4.16 billion in the corresponding month of the last year, showing an increase of 9.55 percent. However, the exports fell by 4.12 percent to $2.05 billion in February 2021 when compared with $2.13 billion in the same month of the last year.
The trade deficit has widened by 24 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in February 2021 owing to increase in imports and decline in exports.
The imports posted 7.49 percent growth to $33.84 billion during the first eight months of the current fiscal year as compared with $31.48 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.
The exports registered an increase of 4.29 percent to $16.3 billion during July–February 2020/2021 as compared with $15.63 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
