After a delay of ten days, official trade figures were finally released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
According to PBS, Pakistan’s exports in August 2019 saw a decline of 7.65% to $1.859 billion as compared to $2.013 billion of August 2018.
On a monthly basis, the country’s exports in August were posted at $1.859 billion against $ 1.894 billion in July 2019, showing a decline of 1.85 percent.
According to data released by the PBS, cumulatively, the exports grew 2.8% or just $102 million to $3.75 billion in the July-August period of the current fiscal year as compared with $3.65 billion in 2018, which suggests a serious review of the monetary policy.
The following were the major exports commodities during August 2019:
The trade deficit saw a decline of 35.86%, as it shrank to $3.92 billion from $6.1 billion in the first two months of this fiscal year (July-August). There was a decrease of $2.2 billion in the trade deficit and almost all of it came from falling imports.
During August 2019, Pakistan’s imports saw a decline of 9% to $3.658 billion as compared to $4.019 billion in July 2019. Moreover, on an annual basis, Pakistani imports witnessed a reduction of 26.26% as imports in August 2018 were $4.961 billion against $3.658 billion in August 2019.
In terms of US dollars, the imports during July-August 2019 totaled at $ 7.677 billion against $ 9.769 billion during the corresponding period of last year, showing a decrease of 21.41 percent, which provided relief to the government.
The following were the major imported commodities during August 2019: