Country’s exports target missed by $4.319 billion

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Sajid Chaudhry
ISLAMABAD: The government has again missed exports target by a wide margin of $4.319 billion as the country’s exports managed to reach only $17.781 billion against the target of $22.1 billion set for the last fiscal year 2008-09.

At the time of the announcement of the Trade Policy 2008 it was targeted that country’s exports would grow by 15 percent in 2008-09, however, due to number of difficulties and issues the exports have actually registered a negative growth of 6.67 percentage during July-June period.

Similarly, the downward revised export target of $19.2 billion has also been missed and country’s exports fell short by $1.419 billion with total exports at $17.781 billion in last fiscal year 2008-09 ended on June 30.

July-June: According to the trade figures released by Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) country’s exports were $17.781 billion as compared with the $19.052 billion exports recorded in the last fiscal year 2007-08 showing a decline of 6.67 percentage.

Due to the import restrictive regime introduced by the economic managers, the imports of the country witnessed a decline of 12.87 percent with total imports at $34.822 billion in 2008-09 as compared with imports at $39.965 billion in the previous fiscal year 2007-08. Trade deficit during 2008-09 amounted to $17.040 billion as compared with trade deficit of $20.913 billion in 2007-08, showing a decline of 18.52 percent.

June over June: Pakistan’s exports during June 2009 amounted to $1.537 billion as against the exports of $1.908 billion in June 2008 projecting a decrease of 19.43 percentage. Imports of the country were recorded at $3.339 billion in June 2009 as compared with $4.023 billion imports in June 2008 showing a decrease of 17.01 percentage. Trade deficit during June 2009 stood at $1.801 billion as compared with trade deficit of $2.115 billion in June 2008 projecting a decline of 14.83 percent.

June over May: Exports of the country during the month of June showed a negligible increase of 2.52 percentage with total imports at $1.537 billion as compared with exports of $1.499 billion in May 2009. Import in the month of June 2009 showed a sudden increase of 30.37 percent with total imports at $3.339 billion as against the imports of $2.561 billion in May 2009. Trade deficit during June 2009 as compared with May 2009 increased by 69.72 percent with total deficit at $1.801 billion in June 2009 as against deficit of $1.061 billion in May 2009.

Concentration of exports: According to the economic survey 2008-09, the export growth is hindered because of lack of diversification in export goods. The trend of Pakistan’s export remained more or less same having concentrated on five items namely cotton manufactures, leather, rice, synthetic textile and sports goods. These five categories accounts for 73.5 percent of total exports during July-March 2008-09. Within these few items cotton manufactures remain major contributor in total exports. The exports structure suggests that the intensity of concentration is changing slowly. The share of exports of other item was 17.4 percent in 2002-03, which has now increased to 26.5 percent of total exports during July-March 2008-09. Likewise, more recently, the share of rice and cotton manufactures contributed 11.3 percent and 53.3 percent in total exports, respectively during July-March 2008-09.

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