Pakistan’s Trade Deficit Soars by 143% in May

Pakistan’s trade deficit widened by 142.91 percent on a month-on-month basis in May 2023 and stood at $2.089 billion compared to $860 million in April 2023, according to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday. However, the trade deficit narrowed by 40.59 percent to $25.791 billion during the first eleven months (July-May) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23) compared to $43.409 billion during the same period of last year. The country’s exports during July-May FY23 were recorded at $25.366 billion against exports of $28.871 billion in July-May of FY22, a decline of 12.14 percent, according to the trade data released by PBS. The imports decreased by 29.22 percent during the 11-month period, going down from $72.280 billion last year to $51.157 billion during the current year. On a year-on-year basis, exports witnessed a decline of 16.69 percent and were recorded at $2.186 billion in May 2023 against the exports of $2.624 billion in May 2022. The imports also decreased to $4.275 billion in May 2023 from $6.760 billion in May 2022, showing negative growth of 36.76 percent. The trade deficit narrowed by 49.49 percent on a YoY basis to $2.089 billion in May 2023 compared to $4.136 billion in May 2022. On a month-on-month basis, the exports during May 2023 increased by 2.29 percent compared to the exports of $2.137 billion in April 2023. The imports into the country increased by 42.64 percent in May 2023 when compared to the imports of $2.997 billion in April 2023, according to the data.