Pakistan earned $ 8,283,261 million from exports of textile products during the first half of the current financial year (2023-24), the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported here Friday. The exports of the product however witnessed a decline of 4.97 percent during July-December (2023-24) when compared to the exports of $ 8,716,437 million during July-December (2022-23). The textile commodities that witnessed positive growth in trade included raw cotton, the exports of which grew by 374.66 percent, from $11.253 million last year to $53.412 million this year. Likewise, the exports of cotton yarn increased by 54.25 percent, from $ 381,545 million last year to $ 588,529 1 million this year and towels by 1.72 percent, from $ 491.696 million to $ 500.133 million. The textile commodities that witnessed negative growth include cotton cloth, the exports of which declined by 13.10 percent, from $1,066.360 million to $926.677 million; cotton carded or combed by 27.33 percent, from $0.809 million to $0.588 million; yarn other than cotton yarn by 13.85 percent, from $22.708 million to $19.562 million, and knitwear by 10.65 percent, from $ 2,464.971 million to $ 2,202.529 million. Likewise, the exports of bed wear declined by 3.55 percent from $ 1,427.730 million to $ 1,377.109 million, tents, canvas and tarpaulin by 1.45 percent, from $61.838 million to million, $60.941, ready-made garments by 8.93 percent, from $ 1,832.835 6 million to $ 1,669.253 million. The exports of art, silk and synthetic textile also decreased by 15.29 percent by declining from $209.225 million to $177.237 million, madeup articles by 6.81 percent, from $378.660 million to $352.864 million whereas the exports of all other textile materials also went down by 3.37 percent, from $366.807 million to $345.428 million. Meanwhile, on year -on-year basis, the textile exports increased by 3.33 percent by going up from $ 1,354.523 million in December 2022 to $ 1,399.655 million in December 2023. On month-on-month basis, the exports grew by 6.15 percent when compared to exports of $ 1,318.536 million in November 2023. It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s overall merchandize trade deficit contracted by 34.29 per cent during the first half of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year. The Trade deficit from July-December (2023-24) was recorded at $11.148 billion as against the deficit of $16.965 billion in July-December (2022-23), showing negative growth of 34.29 per cent. During the period under review, the exports increased by 5.17 per cent to $14.981 billion compared to the exports of $14.244 billion during the corresponding period of last year, according to the latest PBS data. On the other hand, the imports narrowed by 16.28 per cent and were recorded at $26.129 billion compared to $31.209 billion last year.