Country’s exports plummet by $718m in July

ISLAMABAD: The country’s stumbling economy suffered yet another blow as exports in July 2022 plummeted by $718 million to $2.182 billion as against $2.9 billion exports in June 2022. In addition, the trade deficit in July 2022 stood at $2.9 billion with imports of $5 billion during the period.

However, the country’s imports also registered $2.8 billion decline on month-to-month basis as the import bill in June hovered around $7.8 billion, as per the data of FBR. On year-to-year basis, the exports in July also registered a modest decline as compared to $2.3 billion exports of June 2021.

Ironically, the government was taking credit of the decline in import bill for the first month of new fiscal year and claimed that it would help improve dollar inflows in the coming days. However, it failed to divulge the whole truth as the import bill declined due to lower than normal import of POL products in July 2022.

The country had sufficient stock of petroleum products because it had imported additional quantity in May and June, which led to an increase in the import bill for the products to $6.2 billion.

Pakistan’s trade deficit had risen sharply to $48 billion at the end of last fiscal year with the import bill climbing to $80 billion. In a bid to curtail the import bill, the government imposed a ban on luxury items.

It is an alarming development as exports are on a declining path, said one top official dealing with the country’s economy. The market sources said exports witnessed a dip mainly because there was a shortage of gas, electricity and imported raw material. Besides, there were restrictions on opening of letter of credits (LCs) amid paucity of dollars in the inter-bank market.