Trade deficit shrinks by 40.68pc YoY in December

[FOOLS_NIGHTMARE]

Pakistan’s trade deficit stood at $2.857 billion in December, shrinking 40.68 per cent year-on-year, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed.

In December 2021, the deficit had clocked in at $4.816bn. The lower figure was mainly on account of a decrease in imports, which amounted to $5.161bn — declining 31.91pc from last December’s $7.58bn.

Imports have plunged primarily because of restrictions imposed since May by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in order to reduce dollar outflows to protect the country’s declining foreign exchange reserves as well as stem the rupee’s freefall.

Import restrictions were in place even on items required as raw material for exports. As a result, exports also declined last month. PBS data showed that exports in December totalled $2.304bn, a decrease of 16.64pc from last year’s $2.764bn.

Eventually, the central bank removed these curbs in the new year, on Jan 2, as the economic situation began worsening with several companies suspending operations, citing inventory shortages due to import delays.

On a month-on-month basis, the trade deficit increased by 2.36pc. This was due to a decline of 3.64pc in exports while imports also increased marginally by 0.41pc.

PBS data showed that the trade deficit narrowed by 32.65pc in the first half of the current fiscal year compared to July-Dec 2021. Exports and imports during the last six months stood at $14.249bn and $31.382bn, respectively, declining by 5.79pc and 22.63pc compared to the same period last year.

Overall, the trade deficit in July-Dec 2022 came in at $17.133bn compared to $25.438bn in the same period last year.

Trade deficit shrinks by 40.68pc YoY in December

SBP restrictions result in imports plunging to $5.161bn — declining 31.91pc from last December’s $7.58bn.

www.dawn.com

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

All imports should be relegated to the undocumented economy and financing....

 

[epebble]

While reducing imports is commendable, it seems to be implemented haphazardly. Medicines and healthcare are not the places where the axe should fall first. This is going to be tragic for a lot of innocent people.

Fears of healthcare crisis mount amid import restrictions​

Fears of healthcare crisis mount amid import restrictions

"Around 90pc of medical devices used in Pakistan’s hospitals are imported and the ban on imports is now triggering healthcare crisis," says HDA official.

www.dawn.com

 

[Riz]

mulk default ho gia ha aor tu bAt kar raha ha trade deficit ki

 

[Enigma SIG]

PDM should kill half the population of Pakistan.

Imports will half, so will expenses.

Did I mention break Pakistan into 4 pieces too? That will surely reduce all expenditure by 3/4ths!

 

[AZ1]

exports down, gdp down, jobs loss.
Its not an achievement that import is down, everything is down.

 

[Clutch]

 

[CivilianSupremacy]

OMG! This is not an achievement. Even monkey as a PM would have achieve this with such dumb decisions. You have banned imports of even essential raw materials. That's why the entire textile industry is shut down, the auto industry is shutting down, All export oriented industries are shutting down. This is called rolling back the country's progress and systematically destroying it once and for all.