Pakistan's trade deficit shrinks one-third to $17bn

Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed by 32.65 per cent to $17.133 billion during the first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed.

In December 2021, the deficit had clocked in at $4.816bn.

According to PBS data, the exports during July-December (2022-23) were recorded at $14.249 billion against the exports of $15.125 billion in July-December of 2021-22, showing a decline of 5.79 per cent.

Meanwhile, the imports decreased by 22.63 per cent during the period under review by going down from $40.56 billion last year to $31.382 billion during the current year.

On a year-on-year basis, the exports declined by 16.64 per cent to $2.304 billion in December 2022 against the exports of $2.764 billion in December 2021.

The trade deficit widened by 2.36 per cent on a month-on-month basis and stood at $2.857 billion in December 2022 when compared to $2.791 billion in November 2022.