Surging oil and machinery imports widen trade gap in July-September

KARACHI (November 03 2005): The unprecedented rising imports mainly of oil products and machinery have further enlarged country's negative trade balance to more than 2.374 billion dollars during July-September 2005.

According to the provisional data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Tuesday, the balance of trade during the first three months was a negative Rs 141.692 billion.

The balance of trade in September 2005 was a negative Rs 49.184 billion or $823.039 million. The import of petroleum group surged by 52.68 percent to more than $1.457 billion during the period under review of which petroleum crude import increased by 59.57 percent and petroleum products 42.29 percent.

Similarly, machinery import jumped by 60.85 percent to more than $1.621 billion during July-September 2005. Import of vehicles was the major item with $361.192 million followed by textile machinery with $191.215 million.

Metal group including iron and steel is another contributor with 382.21 million dollars.

Exports during July-September, 2005 totalled more than $4.179 billion as against $3.484 billion during the corresponding period of last year showing an increase of 19.93 percent. Exports in rupee terms were estimated at Rs 249.446 billion compared to Rs 204.475 billion during the corresponding period of last year showing an increase of 21.99 percent.

In September, exports amounted to Rs 89.6 billion compared to Rs 84.005 billion in the corresponding period last year, showing a rise of 6.66 percent.

In dollar terms, exports in September increased by 6.47 percent to 1.499 billion dollars compared to 1.408 billion dollars in September 2004.


Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2005

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I think that Pakistan will be able to export stuff up to $ 17 Billion. And at rate which machinery is being imported Industrial growth should have very fast pace and exports are likely to increase even more in next few years.

Import of machinery is realy capital investment, so should be looked at favourably.

we'll definitely get to and hopefully surpass the $17 billion target. pakistan should not be satisfied. we need to aggressively increase the export base and look for newer markets to where we can sell. additionally, pakistan must look to sign FTA's with more countries. i think we'll see a substantial rise in exports starting in 2006, when many FTA's with major trading partners go into effect (china and much of the southeast asian countries). i can safely say that pakistans exports by 2010 should be around $25-30 billion. that should be our short term goal. the long term goal should be to get to $50 billion by 2020. export led growth is a proven way to quickly industrialize and lessen poverty. pakistan has been doing a decent job the past four or five years. i pray that it continues.