Pakistan’s Current Account Balance in the last three Fiscal Years (FY) is as follows:
The Country’ trade deficit reduced to US$ 24.4 Billion in FY 2019-20 from US$ 32.5 Billion in FY 2018-19.
However, in FY 2020-21 trade deficit widened to US$ 30.145 Billion mainly due to resumption of economic activity after the pandemic resulting in growing import volume of energy and non-energy products (electrical and textile machinery, raw materials, and inputs) along with a rising trend in global commodities prices, COVID-19 vaccine, food (sugar and wheat).
Resultantly, exports are also picking up the pace and went up by 13 percent to US$ 25.63 billion in FY 2020-21 from US$ 22.53 billion over FY 2019-20.
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The Ministry of Commerce is cognizant of the trends of the balance of trade and provides required data/information to the Finance Division which is overseeing the surge in imports.
As mentioned above, the majority of imports are energy products and inputs which are necessary to meet the needs of the growing economy of the Country, thus, no action can be taken to restrict the imports.
The Ministry of Commerce recently provided support to the State Bank of Pakistan to identify additional 114 non-essential import items to impose 100% Cash Margin Requirements (CMR) taking the total number of items subject to CMR to 525.
The measure will help discourage imports of these items and thus support the balance of payments.
