Pakistan’s trade deficit has widened by almost 100 percent to $11.7 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year due to an extraordinary increase in the country’s imports.
According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the gap between exports and imports reached $11.7 billion from July to September as compared to the trade deficit for the same period last fiscal, which was $5.9 billion.
The trend in trade deficit indicates that by the end of the fiscal year, the trade deficit will be well above the target of $28.4 billion. The trade deficit for the first two months of the current financial year alone is more than 41% of the annual target.
