Ministry of Commerce and Textile has claimed that exports increased by 24% – the highest level in 4 years – reaching $2.23 billion in March 2018.
According to the latest data, the highest year-on-year growth in a month was reached in March 2018, when the exports for the month reached $2.23 billion, an increase of 24% when compared with March 2017 and 17% when compared with February 2018.
On the other hand, the growth of imports remained subdued at only 5% as compared to March 2017, which has also been one of the lowest growth in imports in the past months.
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The initiatives by the government to provide duty drawback as well as exchange range adjustments have contributed positively to the growth. Improved market access, especially in the European market owing to the successful review of GSP Plus facility, also played an important role.
Imports, on the other hand, are now finding their real value by improved exchange rate regime and regulatory duties on non-essential and luxury goods. However, imports remained under pressure due to the continuation of oil prices on the higher side.
The increase in fuel imports (Oil, Coal, and LNG), both in the terms of price as well as quantities, kept the balance of trade around $3 billion for the month of March 2018, which is 5.7% lower than March 2017 due to robust exports growth.
When with China alone we had more than 13 billion due to CPEC (which is a project to change country’s future) does such analysis make sense when we know imports will stay higher than exports and trade imbalance will remain ?
Are not these analysis intend to curse government and not appreciate it for increase in exports and for CPEC ?
Agreed.
But we can reduce our Food Import bill ( there is a huge increase in import of edible oil and such which could be produced locally if necessary measures are to be taken )