islamabad -


The government is struggling to achieve annual exports target of $27 billion during the ongoing financial year 2012-13 due to the unending power shortage in the country and global economic situation.
“The commerce ministry has set an ambitious exports target at the time when country is facing long hours power outages, and it may not achieve the target by the end of June 2013”, said an official of the commerce ministry while talking to The Nation. The country’s has exported goods worth $20.147 billion in ten months (July-April) of the ongoing financial year 2012-13. The country has to export $7 billion in remaining two months (May and April) to meet the annual exports target that seem challenging at the time when energy situation is deteriorating.
The national economy has been grappling with acute energy shortages, which have hit the industrial sector for the last few years, while global demand is also not encouraging. Pakistan has been losing about 1.65 percent of its GDP every year due to the energy crisis, which in absolute terms equals to $4 billion.
The textile sector, which is the largest foreign exchange earner for the country, has been severely hit by the energy crisis this year and it appears that the sector will lose a major share in the international market.
Meanwhile, according to the figures of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, country’s trade deficit contracted by 6.75 per cent to $16.52 billion in first ten months (July to April) of the current financial year mainly due to healthy growth in exports and continuous decline in imports.  Country’s trade imbalance shrank to $16.52 billion in the period from July 2012 to April 2013 as compared to $17.71 billion of the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal year.
Compared with the country’s exports worth $20.147 billion in July-April 2012-13, the import bill stood at $36.665 billion. This resulted in trade deficit of $16.52 billion. Goods worth $20.147 billion were exported in July-April period of ongoing financial year (2012-13) as compared to $19.329 billion of the corresponding period last year that showed an increase of 4.23 percent. On the other hand, imports went down by 1.02 per cent to $36.665 billion in July-April period of ongoing financial year as compared to $37.042 billion of the corresponding period last year.
Meanwhile, according to the PBS figures, the overall exports growth decreased by 0.19 per cent in April 2013 if compared with exports of March 2013. The country exported goods worth of $2.130 billion in April 2013 against $2.134 billion of March 2013. However, the imports showed growth of 6.02 per cent in April 2013 against March 2013, as the country imported goods worth of $3.909 billion during the last month as compared to $3.687 billion of March 2013. Therefore, the country’s trade imbalance increased by 14.55 per cent in April 2013 against that of March 2013. The country’s trade deficit was recoded at $1.779 billion in April 2013 against $1.553 billion of the March 2013.
According to the PBS figures, exports stood at $2.130 billion in April 2013, which were $2.229 billion in April 2012 and this showed a decline of 4.44 per cent in exports in one year. Imports enhanced by 4.05 per cent and were recorded at $3.909 billion in April 2013 against $3.757 billion of April 2012. The trade deficit for April 2013 against April 2012 increased by 16.43 per cent and was recorded at $1.779 billion.