Islamabad 11, February 2019: Ministry of Commerce’s interventions to effectively control the fast widening trade deficit have started delivering positive results. In the first 7 months of the current financial year, over 2 billion dollars have been saved and earned. Over the period July to January 2018-19, the trade deficit has closed by over USD 2 billion on a year on year basis.
Imports
have contracted USD 1.72 billion in the first 7 months of this financial year. Only in the month of January 2019, the trade deficit closed by USD 1.14 billion. In January, imports declined by USD 1066 million (19%) while exports increased by 4%. The imports have contracted to USD 32.54 billion in July-Jan 2018-19 as compared to USD 34.26 billion in July-Jan 2017-18. The exports have been USD 13.29 billion July-Jan 2018-19 as compared to USD 12.94 billion in July-Jan 2017-18.
The imports have started declining due to a number of policy interventions by the Government that include import contraction measures like regulatory duties (RDs) on non-essential items, improved energy supply, import substitution drive, economic stabilization and currency devaluation. Import of non-essential consumer items has declined as a result of regulatory duties. In January 2019, imports declined by 16% on the products that are subject to Regulatory Duties.
Import of power generation equipment has declined by USD 724 million. Import of furnace oil was restricted by the government and imports fell from 3 million MT to 0.4 million MT. In value terms, the decline in furnace oil imports is USD 830 million. Only in December and January, USD 150 million were saved by restricting the use of furnace oil.
Exports
In the month of January 2019 exports increased by 4% .Over July-Jan 2018-19, exports have increased by 2.5 percent on a year on year basis. Export growth over 7 months was driven by a number of items. Exports of articles of apparel have increased by USD 306 million Copper and footwear have also registered healthy growth. Cement exports have shown 50% increase in July-Jan 2018-19. Agriculture exports including wheat, rice, citrus, ethanol, dates, and potatoes increased by USD 248 million. Potato exports have shown 116% growth in value terms and 120% increase in quantity terms.
