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KARACHI: The country's trade deficit witnessed 14 per cent decline to reach $12.238 billion during the first 10 months of the current year against $14.218 billion during the corresponding period last year due to rise in exports and fall in imports, according to the data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) on Tuesday.
The country's exports registered 8.03 per cent growth to $15.884 billion during the first 10 months (July-April) 2009/10 against $14.703 billion during the corresponding period last year.
The imports have shown negative growth and declined by 2.76 per cent to $28.122 billion during the period against $28.921 billion last year.
A robust growth in exports was witnessed in April year-on-year as exports increased by 31.45 per cent to $1.373 billion against $1.321 billion during the corresponding period last year.
However, Y-o-Y imports also increased by 7.77 per cent to $3.015 billion during April against $2.798 billion in 2009.
The compression in the overall imports is attributed to a decline in both POL and non-POL imports. The contribution in imports under this head registered negative growth during the current fiscal year, owing to a significant negative price impact.
The imports of POL group fell by 1.42 per cent to $7.341 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year from $7.447 billion during the corresponding period last year.
Other groups that registered decline in imports during July-March included food, 23.12 per cent; machinery group, 18.8 per cent; and metal group, 5.09 per cent.
The recovery in exports was observed both in textile, as well as non-textile sectors. Revival in the textile's external demand coupled with good cotton production resulted in high exports of low value-added products.
During the period under review, the exports of textile group registered a growth of 5.66 per cent to $7.59 billion against $7.19 billion, in which raw cotton exports registered an increase of 141.59 per cent and cotton yarn rose by 28.96 per cent.
The decline in trade deficit started from the last fiscal year as it eased to $17.04 billion in 2008/09 against $20.913 billion in 2007/08.
The country's exports during the last fiscal year stood at $17.78 billion, whereas imports were at $34.822 billion.
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