ISLAMABAD - Footwear exports from the country witnessed an increase of 13pc during the fiscal year 2019 compared to the corresponding period of last year. Pakistan exported footwear worth US$122.181 million during July-June (2018-19) against the exports of US$108.125 million during July-June (2017-18), showing a growth of 13pc, according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Among these, the exports of leather footwear witnessed a growth of 12.03 percent as it surged from $95.150 million during last fiscal year to US $106.598 million during the current year.

The canvas footwear exports from the country stood at just US $0.368 million during the current year against US $0.230 million during last year, showing increase of 60.73pc.

However, the exports of all other footwear commodities increased by 19.38pc during the period under review as exports went up from US $12.745 million last year to US $15.215 million during the current fiscal year.

Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the footwear exports increased by 12.91pc during the month of June 2019 when compared to the same month of last year. The footwear exports during 2019 were recorded at US $12.045 million against the exports of US $ 10.668 million in June 2018.

During the month under review, the leather footwear exports also increased by 9.69 percent, canvas by 100 percent whereas the exports of all other footwear commodities increased by 36.44 percent. On the other hand, the month-on-month exports of footwear, witnessed increased of 23.75pc during June 2019 when compared to the exports of US $9.733 million in May 2019, the PBS data revealed.

On month-on-month basis, the exports of leather footwear increased by 27.78 percent, canvas footwear by 480.95pc whereas the exports of all other footwear products however declined by 10.77 percent.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s merchandise trade deficit plunged by 15.33pc during the fiscal year 2018-19 compared to the corresponding period of last year.  The trade deficit contracted to $31.820 billion during July-June (2018-19) against the deficit of $37.583 billion recorded during July-June (2017-18). The exports during the period under review witnessed decrease of 1 pc by falling from $23.212 billion during last year to $22.979 billion during the ongoing fiscal year.

On the other hand, the imports declined by 9.86pc to $54.799 billion during the period under review from $60.795 billion last year, the data revealed. On year-on-year basis, the merchandize exports declined by 8.77pc, from $1.882 billion in June 2018 to $1.717 billion in June 2019 while the imports declined by 22.80pc from $5.652 billion in June 2018 to $4.364 billion in June 2019, the data revealed.