

He was of the view that the government should clearly mention the quantity and value of vaccines imported every month. “Some improvement was seen over last month as imports declined 5% compared to September 2021.” “Trade deficit in the month under review is estimated at about $3.77 billion,” he said. Topline Securities Head of Research Atif Zafar told The Express Tribune that the robust export figure for October 2021 would ease concerns over the balance of payments, however, he stressed the need for further improvement in that regard. Out of the total, consumer goods amounted to $239 million, food items $823 million and capital goods $1.6 billion. “In absolute terms, the net increase in imports over this period is $9.801 billion.” “Most of this is inelastic in nature,” he noted. The remaining 60% of imports comprised petroleum products, coal and gas (34%), vaccines (11%) and food (8%). Moving on to import figures, he revealed that they jumped 64% to $24.99 billion in July-October 2021 compared to $15.19 billion in the corresponding months of 2020.Īccording to the adviser, about 40% of this increase was driven by investment (in capital goods, raw material and intermediate goods), which indicated expansion and enhanced activity in the industrial sector. The PM aide highlighted that Pakistan had fixed a target to ship merchandise worth $9.6 billion abroad in the four-month period. He pointed out that the country’s exports grew 25% to $9.468 billion during July-October 2021 compared to $7.576 billion in the same period of previous year. However, the adviser noted that foreign shipments fell short of the target of $2.6 billion for October 2021. “This is the highest-ever export number in any October in our history,” he stated in a tweet on Monday.

photo: fileĮxports of the country recorded a growth of 17.5% and reached $2.471 billion in October 2021 against $2.104 billion in the corresponding month of previous year, announced Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood. AHL head of research noted that trade deficit declined 10.5% on a monthly basis, indicating a slight betterment on the external front.
