At the time when economy has begun to show the signs of stability including 18 percent decline in trade deficit for the month of July, exports declined over $700 million or 24 percent in July as compared to the exports registered in June 2022.
According to the data issued by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), exports in July were recorded at $2.2 billion against $2.9 billion exports registered in June 2022.
Read more: Why exports in Pakistan need special attention?
On a year-on-year basis, exports declined 0.5 percent as they amounted to $2.219 billion in July 2022 compared to $2.340 billion in July 2021.
As far as other South-Asian countries are concerned, Bangladesh’s exports in July 2022 grew by 14.72 per cent to $3.98 billion year-on-year from $3.47 billion in the same month of 2021 due to an extraordinary performance of the readymade garment sector.
South Asia Exports Growth (July, 2022)
Bangladesh 🇧🇩 ⏫ 14% 🏆
India 🇮🇳 ⬆️ 2.14%
Pakistan 🇵🇰 ⏬ -24%Sadly, 🇵🇰 already behind the race, showing negative growth again…
— Economy of Pakistan (@Pakistanomy) August 14, 2022
All the countries suffered due to surge in prices globally, but Bangladesh exporters termed the export growth in July, the first month of current financial year 2022-23, excellent, stating that the export earnings showed the resilience of the Review of Readymade Garments (RMG) sector despite of rising inflation in the western countries.
According to the Export Promotion Bureau, the export earnings in July 2022 surpassed the government-set target by 1.65 per cent.
Export earnings from the RMG sector in July 2022 raised by 16.61 per cent to $3.36 billion from $2.88 billion in the same month of 2021.
On the other hand, India exhibited a positive growth of 2.14 percent in merchandise exports in July 2022 totaling to USD 36.27 Billion, as compared to USD 35.51 Billion in July 2021.
Sectors which witnessed positive development include petroleum products, leather, electrical items, and coffee.
However, the trade deficit almost tripled to $30 billion during the month due to over 70 per cent rise in crude oil imports.
On the positive side, prominent reduction in Pakistan’s trade deficit by 18.33 percent in July 2022 on year-on-year basis and remained $2.64 billion in July 2022 compared to $3.23 billion in July 2021 was reported by PBS.
Pakistan’s imports on a month-on-month basis declined by 38.3 percent in July 2022 as it remained $4.8 billion compared to $7.880 billion in June 2022.
Even though imports declined due to different strict measures adopted to stem the outflow of dollars, the trade deficit in July 2022 was $2.6 billion, with imports of $4.8 billion over the period.
Read more: How Bangladesh outpaced India and Pakistan economically?
While comparing the exports situation of Pakistan with other South-Asian nations, India and Bangladesh, global economic dynamics were the same for all but coping mechanism varied. The open secret behind remarkable performance of Bangladesh is its revolutionary reforms. It has never let its political instability mess with its economic growth. Pakistan experienced a decline in exports in the month of July at the time when its competing nations witnessed a rise. It is also evident that national economy is a victim of massive political instability and lack of consistent policies from last couple of months which need to be addressed on urgent basis for the revival of economic stability in the country.