ISLAMABAD-The gold imports into the country decreased by 2.18 percent during the first ten months of the current financial year (FY) 2019-20 as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Pakistan imported gold worth $11.629 million during July to April (2019-20) as compared to the imports of $11.888 million during July to April (2018-19), showing decline of 2.18 percent, according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) released on Saturday.
In terms of quantity, the country imported 273 kilograms of gold during the period under review as compared to the imports of 299 kilograms during last year, showing decrease of 8.70 percent.
Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the gold imports into the country during April 2020 increased by 580 percent when compared to the imports of the same month of the last year. The gold imports during the month under review were recorded at $0.170 million against the imports of 0.025 million during April 2019.
On month-on-month basis, the gold imports during April 2020 witnessed decrease of 37.27 percent when compared to the imports of $0.271 million in March 2020, the data revealed. It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s merchandise trade deficit witnessed significant reduction in first ten months of current financial year and declined by 25.24% as compared to the corresponding period of last year. During the period under review country’s exports registered about 3.92% decrease, whereas imports witnessed sharp decline of 16.24%. During the period from July-April (2019-2020), the exports witnessed decrease of 3.92% and reached to $18.408 billion against the exports of $19.160 billion of the same period of last year.
Meanwhile, country’s imports witnessed significant decrease of 16.24 % and went down from $45.393 billion in first ten months of last financial year to $38.021 billion of same period of current financial year, it said.
Based on the figures, the trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at $19.613 billion against the deficit of $26.233 billion during last year, showing decline of 25.24 percent.