Pakistan’s Trade Deficit Widens by Over 23% in November

Pakistan’s trade deficit widened by 23.59 percent on a month-on-month (MoM) basis and stood at $2.876 billion in November 2022 compared to $2.327 billion in October 2022, says the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). On a month-on-month basis, the exports during November 2022 declined by 0.63 percent compared to the exports of $2.384 billion in October 2022. The imports into the country increased by 11.34 percent in November 2022 when compared to the imports of $4.711 billion in October 2022, according to the data. The trade deficit narrowed by 30.14 percent to $14.406 billion during the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year as compared to $20.621 billion during the same period of last year. The exports during July-November of the current fiscal year (FY23) were recorded at $11.932 billion against the exports of $12.362 billion in July-November of FY22, showing a decline of 3.48 percent, according to the trade data released by PBS. The imports decreased by 20.15 percent during the five-month period, going down from $32.983 billion last year to $26.338 billion during the same period of the current fiscal year. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the exports witnessed a decline of 18.34 percent and were recorded at $2.369 billion in November 2022 against the exports of $2.901 billion in November 2021. The imports also decreased to $5.245 billion in November 2022 from $7.899 billion in November 2021, showing negative growth of 33.60 percent. The trade deficit narrowed by 42.46 percent on a YoY basis to $2.876 billion in November 2022 compared to $4.998 billion in November 2021.