Textile exports surge 28.6pc to $17.6 billion in July/May

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s textiles and food exports surged almost a quarter during July-May 2021/22, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said Thursday.

Textiles that makes over three-fifth of the country’s total exports earned $17.62 billion in the eleven months of this fiscal against $13.74 billion in the same month of last year, showing a growth of 28.26 percent,

In May 2022, YoY textile exports grew 56 percent to stand at $1.64 billion as compared to $1.05 billion in the same month a year ago, while MoM growth was down 5.6 percent. The exports of this group stood at $1.73 billion in April 2022. In the textiles group, cotton yarn exports increased 24.2 percent during the period to $1.11 billion compared to $896 million in the same period last year, with May 2022 exports up 48 percent to $106.57 million over the same month last year.

Cotton cloth exports increased 30.34 percent to $2.24 billion, knitwear 36.4 percent to $4.65 billion, bedwear 21.68 percent to $3.0 billion, towels 21.66 percent to $1.02 billion, and readymade garments exports grew 30.68 percent to $3.54 billion in these eleven months. Raw cotton exports went up by 10 times to $6.58 million.

Food group exports increased by 24.23 percent to $4.92 billion against $3.96 billion recorded in the same period last year. In this category, rice exports increased 22.6 percent to $2.28 billion, including basmati exports that increased 24.75 percent to $632.5 million.

During January-May FY22, imports of petroleum group increased by 99.14 percent to $19.68 billion. Of this, imports of petroleum products increased 126 percent to $10 billion, crude oil 74.7 percent to $4.759 billion, LNG 86.3 percent to $4.3 billion and LPG imports climbed up by 43.5 percent to $606.9 million. Besides, raw cotton imports increased 25.3 percent to stand at $1.65 billion and fertiliser went up 43 percent to $774 million. Metal group total imports rose 32 percent to $5.93 billion. Of this, iron and steel scrap imports increased 25.8 percent to $2.15 billion and iron and steel 44 percent to $2.61 billion.

Pakistan’s total food imports increased 11.9 percent to $8.45 billion in July-May FY22 against $7.55 billion in last fiscal. Of this group, wheat imports reduced by 19 percent to $795 million while sugar imports increased 49 percent to $191.4 million.

Machinery imports went up 16.6 percent during these eleven months to stand at $10.33 billion against $8.86 billion last year. Textiles machinery imports increased 47.2 percent to $722.6 million, construction and mining machinery increased 29.6 percent to $162.1 million, electrical machinery 23.7 percent to $1.8 billion, mobile phone imports 4.62 percent to $1.95 billion, while power generation machinery imports declined 9.9 percent to $1.43 billion. Pakistan’s overall trade deficit in the eleven months of FY22 was $43.424 billion compared to $27.463 in the same period last fiscal, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data showed on Thursday. Based on the provisional figures of imports and exports the balance of trade in May 2022 was $4.151 billion.

During the eleven months of FY22, imports surged to a whopping $72.18 billion while exports were at $28.848 billion. In the same period last fiscal, imports were at $50 billion and exports at $22.576 billion. This depicts a 27.8 percent growth in exports and a 44.3 percent increase in imports.