Pakistan’s exports fall by 33 percent in May 2020: PBS

KARACHI: Pakistan’s exports have witnessed a major setback during the month of May 2020, mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic, as it fell down by 33 percent as compared to the exports in 2019, ARY NEWS reported citing data shared by the Pakistan Bureau of statistics (PBS).

According to details, the country’s exports fell down to United States Dollar (USD) 1.39 billion in May 2020 as compared to $2.09 billion in same month of the previous year.

The imports have also witnessed a decrease of 43 percent in May 2020 as it stood at US$2.86 as compared to $5.05 billion in same month of the previous year.

The trade deficit also witnessed a 50 percent decline during May 2020 and remained at $1.46 billion.

Sharing the statistics of 11-months of the ongoing fiscal year, the PBS data showed that the exports witnessed a 7.7 percent decline during the period and stood at $19.79 billion.

The imports witnessed a 19 percent decline and remained at US$40.85 billion during the 11-months of the fiscal year. Decline in imports, also caused the trade balance to slide by 28 percent during the previous 11 months as it stood at $21.05.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan’s trade deficit witnessed a decline of around 26 percent during first 10 months of the ongoing fiscal year 2019-20 as compared to the previous year, showed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data.

The volume of the trade deficit remained at United States Dollar (USD) 19.5 billion during the first 10 months of the ongoing year as compared to $26.2 in the previous year of 2018-19.

The imports witnessed a 16.5 percent decline during the first 10 months of the ongoing year, standing at US$37.9 billion this year as compared to $45.3 billion in 2018-19.

The exports also witnessed a slight decrease of around four percent in the first 10 months-mainly due to coronavirus lockdown, standing at $18.4 billion as compared to $19.1 billion in the previous year.