Trade deficit reaches to record high of $43.3 billion

Pakistan’s trade deficit widened alarmingly by 57.85% to $43.33 billion in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2021-22, due to higher than expected imports.

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data shows that the 11-month deficit in 2018 has already broken the record of the highest trade deficit of $37 billion for the whole year.

The trade deficit is widening due to the extraordinary increase in imports due to the rise in global commodity prices, while exports have stalled at about $2.5 billion to $2.8 billion per month, mostly semi-finished and raw materials products are included.

The trade deficit reached $4.4 billion in May, up about 6.90 percent from April and 11.50 percent from May 2021.

The trade deficit reached a record high of $37.7 billion in Fiscal year 2017-18, but was reduced to $31.8 billion in the following year (2018-19) due to government measures, and then to in 2019-20, it dropped further to $23.2 billion.

However, this trend has changed again and the trade gap has reached $30.8 billion in Fiscal year 2020-21 and is expected to reach an all-time high during the current fiscal year.