Pakistan’s exports in March surged to $2.773 billion at a growth rate of 17.3 percent compared to $2.365 billion observed in the corresponding period last year.
Conversely, provisional data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) indicates that on a month-on-month basis, exports have dipped by 2 percent to $2.77 billion in March 2022, compared to $2.82 billion in the previous month.
Exports (Provisional)
Mar’22: $2.77bn, +17% YoY, -2% MoM
9MFY22: $23.3bn, +25% YoY@StateBank_Pak @razak_dawood @aliya_hamza @Asad_Umar @Hammad_Azhar @MuzzammilAslam3#PBS #Exports #Trade #Economy pic.twitter.com/IpEtjrQ2jr— Arif Habib Limited (@ArifHabibLtd) April 1, 2022
The Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood tweeted that exports during July-March fiscal year 2021-2022 soared by 25 percent to $23.332 billion as compared to $18.688 billion in the corresponding period last year, indicating an increase of $4.644 billion.
https://twitter.com/razak_dawood/status/1509856624860872707?t=D_P74ZjRA-Lm9bdsYT0Cig&s=19
Dawood congratulated the exporters for maintaining the momentum of exports, adding that “our exports are in line with our targets & we expect to achieve our yearly target”.
As per SBP figures, Pakistan’s current account deficit was $545 million in February, which was less than the $2.5 billion record loss in January but over 16 times larger than the same month last year.
The trade deficit widened by 82.2 percent during the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year 2021-22 and reached $31.959 billion compared to $17.535 billion during the same period of 2020-21.
Don’t export for the sake of exporting. Deficit raises partly because we import raw materials to export where raw materials cost more than the finished products. Case in point is mobile manufacturing.