KARACHI : Current statistics of exports and imports revealed that Pakistan is likely to miss the export target and the trade deficit is likely to hit roof following the conclusion of the current fiscal year.
Exports in seven months showed a drop of 3.2 percent to 11.685 billion dollars but imports witnessed a steep rise of 13.65 percent to 29.11 billion dollars.
Slower pace of exports and rising import bill widened the trade deficit to almost 17 billion dollars, up from 13.5 billion dollars recorded in July 2015 to January 2016 period.
Average exports per month has been calculated at 1.669 billion dollars and imports average has been 4.158 billion dollars and if this trend continued till the end of the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2017, exports would be settled around 20 billion dollars and imports 49 billion dollars, missing the exports and trade deficit targets.
The State Bank of Pakistan in its recent quarterly report estimates exports would be around 21.5 billion dollars to 22.5 billion dollars for 2016-17, to be missed by almost 2 billion dollars while trade deficit would be jumped by almost 7 billion dollars. SBP forecasts imports to range between 42 billion dollars to 43 billion dollars in the current fiscal year.
Imports are rising due to rising trend witnessed in power generating machinery group as the government focused since their arrival in power in 2013 to reduce load shedding by 2018. Across the power plants would be installed generating electricity from coal, furnace oil and through usage of LNG.
