Mizzamil Aslam, the spokesman of the Ministry of Finance while addressing a press conference on Wednesday said that Pakistan’s trade deficit shrank by 30 percent to $3.36 billion in January as compared to $4.8 billion in the last month of 2021.
He said, “Our import bill was recorded at $7.6 billion last month (December 2021) had declined to $5.9 billion in January 2022, showing a decline of 22 percent.”
The exports of the country enhanced by 18.7 percent and rose to $2.54 billion in January as compared to $2.1 billion during the first month of last calendar year. Imports too, went high during January by 23 percent to 5.9 billion as compared $4.8 billion during the same month, last year. Trade deficit during January of last year rose by 26 percent.
Read more: Trade deficit widens 106% to $25.478 billion in first half of FY22
During the period from June 2021 to January 2022, the exports enhanced by 24 percent to $17.7 billion as compared to $14.255 billion during the same period in the last fiscal year.
Imports too went high by 58 percent to $46 billion during the first seven months of the current financial year as compared to $29.2 billion during these months in the last fiscal year, indicating a rise of 92 percent.
Mazammil Aslam said that at present, the country has sufficient stocks of wheat and sugar therefore, no import of these items would be done. The imports of these items along with the corona vaccine had caused the high import bill last year. He said that at present, inflation is at its peak which would now move back in the coming months.
During the address, Muzammil Aslam told that exports of services during the first six months of the ongoing fiscal year came to $3.41 billion as compared to $2.84 billion during the same months, last year, indicating the rise by 20, percent. The imports of the services too went high by 38.8 percent to $5.25 billion during the period from July to December in the current fiscal year.
