Pakistan’s exports grow to $2.3bn in March, ‘highest in last ten years’

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood took to Twitter today to share data on Pakistan’s exports and imports during March 2021.

“Ministry of Commerce is glad to share that according to provisional figures, in March 2021 our exports increased to USD 2.345 Billion. This is an increase of 13.4% over Feb-2021. It is the monthly highest in last ten years,” he said in a series of tweets.

Razak pointed out 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,” he clarified.

He added that imports grew to $5.3 billion in March mainly due to increased imports of petroleum, wheat, soy bean, machinery, raw material and chemicals, mobiles, fertilizers, tyres and antibiotics and vaccines.

For the 9-month period of July-March of the current financial year (FY), the adviser said exports increased by 7% to $18.669 billion as compared to $17.451 billion in the corresponding period last year.

During the same period, imports grew by 12% to $39.210 billion this financial year as compared to $34.817 billion during the last fiscal year.

“This growth has come from increase in import of raw material as well as import of wheat, sugar and cotton,” he explained.