Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Thursday said the Ministry of Commerce is glad to share that according to provisional figures the country’s exports have increased to $2.345 billion in March 2021.
“This is an increase of 13.4 percent over Feb-2021. It is the monthly highest in the last ten years,” Razak Dawood said.
He said, “This is also the first time since 2011 that exports have crossed the $2 billion mark for six consecutive months. The export growth of 29.3% over March 2020 should not be considered as it is misleading since there was a lockdown last year.”
Abdul Razak Dawood said, “The imports in March 2021 grew to $5,313 million which is mainly due to increased imports of petroleum, wheat, soybean, machinery, raw material and chemicals, mobiles, fertilizers, tyres and antibiotics and vaccines in March 2021.”
He further explained that for the 9-month period of July-March 2021 of the current Financial Year (FY), Pakistan exports have increased by seven percent to $18.669 billion as compared to $17.451 billion in the corresponding period last year.
During the same period, the imports grew by 12 percent to $39.210 billion this FY as compared to $34.817 billion in the last FY. This growth has come from an increase in the import of raw material as well as the import of wheat, sugar and cotton.