Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan on Tuesday informed the Senate that the country’s exports reached $3 billion per month due to prudent policies introduced by the incumbent government.
“The exports remained at the highest level of around $2 billion per month during the last tenure of the PML-N government, which has now increased $3 billion per month,” he said during question hour in the Senate.
Currently, he said, all economic indicators were on the growth trajectory and the national economy was moving in the right direction, which was duly acknowledged by international rating agencies and analysts. Despite the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic that badly affected the global economies, Pakistan achieved a record Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate of 5.37 percent and the current account deficit was at the lowest level of around $1.9 billion as compared to the last tenure of
PML-N. He said that when the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government took over in 2018 after the PML-N, the current account deficit was $20 billion and foreign exchange reserves were $9 billion. “Today, the reserves are around $ 20 billion and the country has the import bill for three months, which is considered necessary for any country,” he said.
He said Pakistan’s exports in goods were picking up pace and went up by 13 percent to $25.3 billion in FY 2020-21 from $ 22.53 billion over the last year. “Exports witnessed 26.89 percent growth during July-November 2021-22 and remained $ 12.364 billion compared to $ 9.744 billion during the same period of 2020-21,” he added.
However, the minister said, imports into the country also increased resulting in a huge trade deficit during the period of July-Nov 2021. Citing the reasons, he said that the surge in imports came amid a booming commodity demand after COVID-19 recovery, the sharp increase in global commodity prices mainly in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), petroleum, energy, coal, and food-related essential items. Besides, Ali Muhammad Khan said freight cost jumped on the back of a recovery in global demand as more and more countries were lifting Covid-19 restrictions.
“Shortage of containers has also disrupted the international supply chain and thus the freight charges have increased manifolds. An increase in imports of palm oil is significant due to the price rise.”
Among other reasons for the increased imports were the shortages in the local supply of sugar, wheat and pulses; low production of cotton and the increased prices of medicinal products.
“Imports of vaccines have been made due to the spread of Covid-19 in the country, which has a significant impact on the import bill.”