ISLAMABAD : The footwear exports from the country witnessed an increase of 13.02 percent during the first eleven months of the fiscal year (2018-19) as compared to the corresponding period of last year. Pakistan exported footwear worth $110.145 million during July-May (2018-19) against the exports of $97.457 million during July-May (2017-18), showing a growth of 13.02 percent, according to the latest data of PBS. Among these, the exports of leather footwear witnessed a growth of 12.32 percent as it increased from $85.308 million during last year (2017-18) to $95.814 million during the fiscal year (2018-19). The exports of canvas footwear however witnessed negative growth of 53.91 percent as it decreased from $0.106 million during fiscal year (2018-19) to $0.230 million last year. However the exports of all other footwear commodities increased by 19.35 percent during the period under review as these went up from $11.919 million last year to $14.225 million during the period under review.

Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the footwear exports witnessed an increase of 4.64 percent during the month of May 2019 when compared to the same month of last year. The footwear exports during May 2019 were recorded at $9.733 million against the exports of $9.301 million in May 2018.

On the other hand, the month-on-month the exports of footwear, declined by 5.90 percent during May 2019 when compared to the exports of $10.343 million in April 2019, the PBS data revealed.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s overall merchandize trade deficit plunged by 13.62 per cent during the first eleven months of fiscal year 2018-19 compared to the corresponding period of last year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.

The trade deficit contracted by 13.62 per cent to $29.207 billion during the period against the deficit of $33.812 billion recorded during last year.

The exports during the period under review witnessed nominal decrease of 0.3% by falling from $21.330 billion during last year to $21.267 billion.

On the other hand, the imports declined by 8.47 per cent to $50.474 billion during the period under review from $55.142 billion last year, the data revealed.

On year-on-year basis, the exports declined by 1.72 per cent, from $2.139 billion in May 2018 to $2.102 billion in May 2019 while the imports declined by 12.8 per cent from $5.782 billion in May 2018 to $5.042 billion in May 2019, the data revealed.