Trade deficit falls to $3.9 billion from $6.1 billion

[Shahzaz ud din]

Trade deficit falls to $3.9 billion from $6.1 billion
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Monitoring Report
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September 21, 2019
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit shrank 36% to $3.9 billion in the first two months of the current fiscal year, reported The Express Tribune.

Trade figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed that exports contracted both on a month-on-month and year-on-year basis in August despite over one-third devaluation of the rupee against the US dollar.

Cumulatively, the exports grew 2.8% or just $102 million to $3.75 billion in the July-August period of the current fiscal year, which suggested a serious review of the monetary policy.

Overall, the trade deficit, which stood at $6.1 billion in the same period of last fiscal year, shrank to $3.9 billion in the first two months of this fiscal year, reported the newspaper.

In absolute terms, there was a decrease of $2.2 billion in the trade deficit and almost the entire reduction came from the import side.

Imports dropped 21.4% to $7.7 billion during the period under review but the improvement was mainly because of reduction in imports of the petroleum group, transport group, textile and food groups.

 

[KhanBaba2]

Imports dropped 21.4% to $7.7 billion during the period under review but the improvement was mainly because of reduction in imports of the petroleum group, transport group, textile and food groups.

The petroleum side decrease should be a problem, as consumption does not seem to have decreased a lot. You are basically consuming what was in stock.

 

[Shahzaz ud din]

Pakistan’s Trade Deficit Fell by $2.2 billion in July-August 2019
Posted 1 min ago by Jehangir Nasir

• Shares
  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, which suggests a serious review of the monetary policy.
  
  The following were the major exports commodities during August 2019:
  
  • Knitwear (Rs. 44,054 million)
  • Readymade garments (Rs. 37,261 million)
  • Bed wear (Rs. 32,549 million)
  • Cotton cloth (Rs. 27,991 million)
  • Cotton yarn (Rs. 17,282 million)
  • Rice others (Rs. 12,739 million)
  • Towels (Rs. 9,686 million)
  • Rice Basmati (Rs. 9,130 million)
  • Made-up articles (excl. towels & bed wear) (Rs. 8,528 million)
  • Surgical Goods & Medical Instruments (Rs. 5,971 million).
  Balance of Trade
  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.
  
  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:
  
  • Petroleum products (Rs. 76,215 million)
  • Natural gas, liquified (Rs.46,779 million)
  • Electrical machinery and apparatus (Rs. 38,133 million)
    Plastic materials (Rs. 25,347 million)
  • Palm oil (Rs. 23,792 million)
  • Iron and steel (Rs. 23,695 million)
  • Petroleum crude (Rs.23,328 million)
  • Iron and steel scrap (Rs. 19,415 million)
  • Power generating machinery (Rs. 15,564 million)
  • Medicinal Products (Rs. 13,692 million).

 

[Imran Khan]

We need to make it 0 good job gov

 

[Rafael]

The petroleum side decrease should be a problem, as consumption does not seem to have decreased a lot. You are basically consuming what was in stock.

Nope I think its the Saudi oil facility coming online.

 

[KhanBaba2]

Nope I think its the Saudi oil facility coming online.

Technically it is still a trade and should be added to the trade deficit and show the funding of it as a loan.

 

[Code_Geass]

this reflects that we did not have capacity to export any further exchange rate has only affected imports which is okay but we need to capacity building exports which was not done in last so many years due to exchange rate was not being adjusted we preferred imported goods because they were cheap.

 

[graphican]

I had a talk with an informed skeptic who mentioned the dropping of import means a country has weaker buying power on the global stage. According to him, the real test was if Paksitan is exporting more and export has increased instead of import decreasing, which is the primary driving factor of gap reduction in this case. I think he's right.

 

[Code_Geass]

I had a talk with an informed skeptic who mentioned the dropping of import means a country has weaker buying power on the global stage. According to him, the real test was if Paksitan is exporting more and export has increased instead of import decreasing, which is the primary driving factor of gap reduction in this case. I think he's right.

i think that was the purpose of depreciating rupee to weaken buying power in short term it will always be challenge to increase exports.

 

[Sine Nomine]

i think that was the purpose of depreciating rupee to weaken buying power in short term it will always be challenge to increase exports.

For increasing exports we need a sound strategy,spread over almost a decade back with security and peace.

 

[Code_Geass]

For increasing exports we need a sound strategy,spread over almost a decade back with security and peace.

we need massive increase in industrial/ agriculture output to increase export.

 

[Sine Nomine]

we need massive increase in industrial/ agriculture output to increase export.

Output along won't do anything,we need better Q&C on par with West.
More investment in finished Agri products and Tech.

 

[Mav3rick]

We need to make it 0 good job gov

Ideally, it should be in the negative; however, it should NOT be at the cost of critical imports.

We are NOT establishing ANY industries, rather losing industries and production. It is basically an extremely sad state of affairs.

 

[Fawadqasim1]

Nope I think its the Saudi oil facility coming online.

Any statistics sir