ISLAMABAD: Spokesman for the Finance Minister Muzammil Aslam has said that the trade deficit decreased by 30.19 percent on a month-on-month basis.
Aslam addressing a press conference here on Wednesday said, “Our import bill which was recorded at US$7.6 billion last month (December 2021) had declined to $5.9 billion in January 2022, showing a decline of 22 percent.”
He said the exports also declined by 8 percent during the period under review but overall the trade deficit showed a big decline. The imports also rose to $46 billion from $29.2 billion in July-Jan (2020-21) showing an increase of 58 percent. Whereas the trade deficit rose sharply to $28 billion during the period under review, thus showing an increase of 92 percent, he added.
He said, on average, the exports during the first seven months (July-January) of fiscal year 2021-22 surged to $17.7 billion against $14.255 billion in the same period of previous year, showing an increase of 24 percent.
Muzammil Aslam said during the previous few months, the unprecedented increase in the import bill was mainly due to imports of COVID vaccine, sugar, and wheat. He however said that since these commodities would not be imported now so there would not be any sudden increase in the imports.
He said at present the country had surplus stock of sugar and wheat, so there was no need for their import. He further said the inflation in the country had reached its peak now and it would decline in the months to come along with imports and trade deficit.
The spokesman said such a situation was created in 2008 too when prices in the international market rose sharply but the then government did a major mistake by depleting the country’s foreign exchange reserves to maintain the currency value.
On the other hand, he said that now due to a rational approach especially by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the country’s reserves did not go down which were on a historically higher side and the exchange rate too did not lose its value as much as it was expected.
The spokesman said prices of perishable items in the country were on the declining trend, while unlike during the last year, wheat flour price was also stable this year. Similarly, prices of eggs, chicken, tomatoes, and fresh vegetables were also stable.
He said despite the historical crisis the current government had to face in the shape of the coronavirus pandemic and then hike in global inflation, the government managed to stabilize the key macroeconomic indicators.
