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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s export of merchandise fell for the sixth consecutive month in March 2012, from a year ago, causing a higher than expected trade deficit.
Exports dipped to $2.001 billion in March this year, a decline of 18.76 per cent from $2.463 billion over the same month last year, suggested data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics issued on Tuesday.
No official words are issued either by the commerce ministry or textile industry to elaborate the decline in the country’s exports especially from the textile and clothing sector. And even these ministries did not seem to come up with some measures to kick up exports.
Even the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), established to promote exports, is busy holding exhibitions and yet to establish contacts with exporters to help them overcome the crisis.
Experts say the continuing global recession led to cut in demand from key markets Europe and United States. The fall in the export proceeds was mainly driven by textile and clothing sectors.
Alarmingly, the exports also witnessed a decline in terms of rupee in March reflecting that export proceeds did not get advantage of depreciation of the rupee in the past few months.
The overall growth in export sector in the first nine months (July-March) also entered a negative growth as export proceeds fell to $17.190 billion, declined by 3.03 per cent from $17.727 billion over the corresponding period last year.
Consequently, the export target of $25 billion projected for the current fiscal year seems unachievable. Even textile sector has projected that export of textile and clothing sector will remain below $12 billion by end of this year.
As a result, the trade deficit now stands at $16.095 billion in July-March period this year as against $11.289 billion in the same months last year, reflecting an increase of 42.57 per cent. Alone in the month of March, the trade deficit jumped by over 56.81 per cent over the last year.
The slowdown in exports also exerting pressure on the balance of payments, as the pace of imports have also risen with the rising import bill of oil and eatables.
The central bank reported the current account deficit in July-Feb 2011-12 stood at $2.952 billion, compared with a deficit of $194 million in the same period last year. Even the rising flow of remittances, which recorded over 28 per cent increase, had failed to contain the ballooning current account deficit because of decline in export proceeds during the period under review.
On the other hand, import bill went up by 2.34 per cent to $3.497 billion in March as against $3.417 billion over the same month last year. And overall import bill now reached to $33.285 billion in the first nine months this year as against $29.016 billion in the corresponding period last year, showing an increase of 14.71 per cent.
The government has projected import target at $42.910 billion in 2011-12.
For the current year, the government forecast a trade deficit at $17.292 billion as its rebounding economy raises demand for manufacturing and oil imports.
