Apr exports down 17.66pc to Rs2.178bn MoM
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan exports witnessed a decrease in April whereas country's import increased, says Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The data of exports and imports released by PBS revealed exports from Pakistan during April 2025 amounted to Rs611,289 million (provisional) against Rs740,800 million in March 2025 and Rs653,957 million during April 2024 showing a decrease of 17.48 per cent over March, 2025 and of 6.52 per cent.
The PBS data reveals that the exports in April, 2025 totalled $2,178 million (provisional) as compared to 2,645 million in March, 2025 showing a decrease of 17.66per cent over March 2025 and of 7.36per cent as compared to $ 2,351 million in April 2024.
Jul-Apr exports up 6.25pc to $26.859bn YoY
Exports during July–April 2024-25 totalled Rs7,495,497 million (provisional) against Rs7,171,883 million during the corresponding period of last year showing an increase of 4.51per cent.
In terms of US dollars, the exports during July–April 2024 - 2025 totalled $26,896 million (provisional) against $25,278 million during the corresponding period of last year showing an increase of 6.40per cent.
Main commodities of exports during April 2025 were knitwear (Rs93,448 million), readymade garments (Rs84,968 million), bed wear (Rs54,922 million), rice others (Rs45,070 million), cotton cloth (Rs35,474 million), towels (Rs23,748 million), made-up articles (excl towels and bedwear), (Rs15,302 million), fish and fish preparations, (Rs13,470 million), basmati rice (Rs12,840 million) and petroleum products (excl top Naphta) (Rs12,811 million).
Imports into Pakistan during April, amounted to Rs1,575,176 million (provisional) as againstRs1,352,310 million in March 2025 and Rs1,347,817 million during April 2024 showing an increase of 16.48per cent over March 2025 and of 16.87per cent.
In terms of US dollars, the imports in April 2025 totalled $ 5,611 million (provisional) as compared to $ 4,828 million in March 2025 showing an increase of 16.22per cent over March, 2025 and of 15.79per cent as compared to $ 4,846 million in April, 2024.
Imports during July–April 2024 - 2025 totalled Rs13,463,700 million (provisional) as againstRs12,732,232 million during the corresponding period of last year showing an increase of 5.75per cent.
In terms of US dollars, the imports during July – April, 2024 - 2025 totaled $48,292 million (provisional) as against $44,900 million during the corresponding period of last year showing an increase of 7.55per cent.
Main commodities of imports during April 2025 were petroleum crude (Rs151,470 million),electrical machinery and apparatus (Rs150,199 million), petroleum products (Rs139,114 million), palm oil (Rs83,674 million), iron and steel (Rs70,923 million), natural gas liquefied (LNG) (Rs66,043 million), plastic materials (Rs64,101 million), raw cotton (Rs56,960 million), iron and steel scrap (Rs42,018 million) and motor cars (CKD/SKD) (Rs38,687 million).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
5 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Survey fails to calculate unemployment rate for current year
ISLAMABAD: The Economic Survey 2024-25 failed to calculate the unemployment rate for the current year and instead cited the rate prevalent four years ago in 2020-21: 6.3 percent from Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2020-21. The reason noted in the report is that the LFS for 2022-23 could not be undertaken due to the engagement of PBS with the 7th Population & Housing Census. However, work on LFS 2024-25 is under process. The LFS survey reveals that in 2020-21 youth (aged 15-24) had the highest unemployment rate of 11.1 percent, with 10.0 percent for males and 14.4 percent for females. The second highest unemployment rate was seen amongst 25-34 year olds, with a rate of 7.3 percent. PBS conducts first digital census: Around 7.8pc of total population unemployed Among this group, 5.4 percent of males and 13.3 percent of females were unemployed leading to the conclusion that unemployment is more prevalent among females, especially those between 15 and 24 years of age. The survey mentioned that during 2024, the BE&OE and the OEC registered 727,381 workers for overseas employment. According to BE&OE, more than 62 percent (452,562) of Pakistani workers moved to Saudi Arabia for employment, followed by Oman (11 percent), to earn a living. UAE employed 64,130 Pakistani workers (9 percent) while Qatar offered jobs to 40,818 individuals (6 percent). Bahrain and Malaysia hosted 25,198 workers (3 percent) and 5,790 workers (1 percent), respectively. In 2024, the highest number of workers who went abroad for employment was from Punjab (404,345), followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (187,103), Sindh (60,424), and Tribal areas (29,937). The skill composition of Pakistani emigrants in 2024 continues to be dominated by unskilled and semi-skilled labour, with relatively low representation from highly qualified and highly skilled professionals. According to the data, 50 percent of emigrants fall under the unskilled category (366,092), while 35 percent (255,706) are skilled workers. Although there has been a slight decline compared to 2023, unskilled labour remains in high demand globally, particularly in construction, domestic work, and agriculture sectors. The total population of Pakistan according to Seventh Population and Housing Census (2023) has reached 241.5 million; growing at 2.55 percent annually. The population comprises 124.32 million (51.5%) males and 117.15 million (48.5) females. A significant share of Pakistan's population is young, with 26% aged 15-29 years, while 53.8% fall within the working-age group of 15-59 years. This demographic dividend presents a unique opportunity for economic expansion and development. However, to fully capitalize on this advantage, strategic investments in education, skill development, and vocational training are essential. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Business Recorder
5 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Economic Survey: an objective survey?
EDITORIAL: Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb began traditional press conference on the Economic Survey 2024-25 claiming that that the Pakistan economy must be viewed in the context of the global economy. It would, however, been more appropriate to compare Pakistan's growth rate with regional countries — China's growth rate for 2024 was 5 percent, India's 6.5 percent for 2025, Bangladesh's 4.2 percent, and Sri Lanka's 5 percent against Pakistan's projected 2024-25 growth of 2.68 percent. This rate even though downgraded from the budgeted 3.5 percent will be a challenge, given that the first quarter GDP rate was revised by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to 1.34, the second quarter revised to 1.53 percent and third quarter (not yet revised) to 2.4 percent. The Survey notes manufacturing growth at 4.77 percent in spite of slow recovery of the large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector; however, this rate is not in synch with the LSM negative growth of 1.47 percent July-March 2025 against negative 0.22 percent in the comparable period last year. The Survey determined to give this a positive spin noted that 'despite the overall lacklustre performance it is noteworthy that nearly half of the LSM sectors demonstrated positive growth, including industries such as wearing apparel, textiles, coke and petroleum products, pharmaceutical and automobiles.' One can only hope that this is not a prelude to changing the weightage of the industrial subsectors to show improved performance as was witnessed when Dr Hafeez Sheikh as the Finance Minister reduced the weightage of food in inflation calculation thereby, halving the rate of inflation overnight. Inflation, Aurangzeb contended rightly, has come down dramatically. We are sure that he is aware that basic economic theory dictates a 2 percent inflation is necessary to oil the wheels of industry (supported by the US Federal Reserve). A major contributing factor to the drop in food inflation was the decline in the prices of the staple wheat due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) barring provincial/federal governments from procuring or setting a support price for wheat, which is likely to lead farmers to switch to a more lucrative crop next year, necessitating imports. The Survey inexplicably does not cite employment/unemployment rates and those that it cites are dated to 2020-21 while the section on Population, Labour Force and Employment details policy priorities including Gender Path and Sustainability, Prime Minister's Women Empowerment package 2024, Initiatives for skill development and employment generation, new initiatives sourced to the Prime Minister, Prime Minister's Youth programme as well as future of employment in green and digital transitions. There is, however, a section on overseas employment but here too the total number is calculated from 1972 onwards, thereby data of overseas employees in 2024-25 is not quantified. The Survey disturbingly notes a net outflow of 1.6 billion dollars on the financial front as government debt repayments escalated and net (as opposed to gross) liabilities decreased. In other words, the financial account remains a source of serious concern, necessitating higher loans and rollovers in the next fiscal year. Total expenditure rose to 16.337 trillion rupees July-March 2025 compared to 13.682 trillion rupees in the comparable period of last year – a rise of 19.4 percent with current expenditure rising by 18.3 percent as per the Survey and this in spite of the massive decline in debt service payments, which rose by 16.7 percent this year compared to a rise of 54 percent recorded last year due to a decline in the discount rate — from 22 percent last year to 11 percent last month. The government had budgeted a 21 percent rise in current expenditure in 2025 and after the recent Indian adventurism effectively repelled by Pakistan it is likely that the rise maybe higher than the budgeted 21 percent. The Survey's claim that the rise in expenditure is attributable to a 'notable rise' in development expenditure is not borne out by data uploaded on the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives website which distinguishes authorisations (894 billion rupees July-April 2025) from actual disbursements (expenditure as per SAP), which is less than half at 449 billion rupees. It is important to note that the focus remained on physical infrastructure development rather than on social development particularly education, which was one of the main contributors to China's meteoric rise as an economic power that has enabled the country not to succumb to US tariff threats. Pakistan faces many challenges associated with climate change; however, Shehbaz Sharif-led government has shown a key commitment to overcoming these challenges, reflected by IMF's approval of the 1.4 billion-dollar Resilience and Sustainable Facility. The voluminous Economic Survey publication prepared by the Economic Adviser's Wing under the administrative control of the Finance Ministry released to the general public on a national holiday and as usual a mere one day prior to the Budget presages few, if any, indications of what the Budget would contain the following day. While the statistics it contains are not up to date (with few exceptions including trade figures updated till April and foreign exchange reserves till 27 May) the analysis as always mirrors the government's claims of success in raising the tax-to-GDP ratio (though the budgeted shortfall till end May was cited at one trillion rupees) and the continuation of reliance on indirect taxes whose incidence on the poor is greater than on the rich. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Business Recorder
5 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Analysis: Economic Survey
Economic Survey 2024-25, with most data limited to nine months as all previous surveys, emphasized progress 'underpinned by effective macroeconomic management, improved fiscal and external account balances and a significant reduction in inflation' while ignoring dangerously high poverty levels - 44.7 percent estimated by the World Bank though independent economists place it at 2 to 3 percent higher - and accusing those who raise concerns as a deliberate attempt to fuel public discontent. Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on 9 June 2025 released the Survey for the current year which epitomized even more of a non-event than previous years on two counts given that up to date data was available and uploaded on government and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) websites. First, there was an addition of a key statistic - quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - launched by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on 28 November 2023 with World Bank technical support to enable short term policy responses by the government. Divide between nominal vs real GDP The PBS has so far been off the mark for the first two quarters of the current year – as the July-September rate was revised upwards by 0.3 percent (from 1.34 to 1.37 percent) and downwards by 0.2 percent in the next quarter (from 1.73 percent to 1.53 percent). The correction provides little comfort level in the accuracy of the third quarter's estimate (July-March 2025) of 2.4 percent and even less for the 2.68 percent growth rate projection for the entire fiscal year as the last quarter must show a rate higher than the sum of the first three quarters but the third quarter rate may also have to be revised upward to reach the annual projection. Sadly, the 1.8 percent lower GDP growth than the budgeted projection of 3.5 percent in the current year did not lead to any timely pro-growth policy decisions or as the Survey claimed effective macroeconomic management as the government continued its contractionary policies on both fronts: (i) monetary, in spite of what the Finance Minister correctly pointed out was a massive decline in the discount rate to 11 percent from 22 percent the year before though this rate remains double the average of regional competing countries; and (ii) fiscal with the one trillion dollar lower tax collection than was budgeted that led to a cut in development expenditure disbursements with negative repercussions on growth and a rising reliance on petroleum levy (an indirect tax itemized under other taxes so as not to share the revenue with the provinces) that reduced take-home pay further pushing many more below the poverty line. Aurangzeb praised the Prime Minister's personal engagement in ensuring the rise in tax to GDP ratio – a rise that is largely premised on the 1.8 percent reduction in the growth rate as the shortfall in the budgeted tax revenue for the current year was as noted above estimated at one trillion rupees. Next year's tax targets may also be compromised as the IMF has stipulated in its first review report dated May 2025 to 'substantially streamline and reduce tariffs (customs and regulatory duties) and reduce non-tariff barriers and move away from special duties applied to imports for particular industries.' These measures are expected to increase reliance on withholding taxes in the easy to collect sales tax mode (currently accounting for 75 to 80 percent of the 40 percent of all direct tax collections) with major negative implications on the value of each rupee earned on the income of the poor relative to the income of the rich. And secondly, IMF noted in its staff level agreement documents dated October 2024 that 'important shortcomings remain in the source data available for sectors accounting for around a third of GDP, while there are issues with the granularity and reliability of the GFS. The authorities are prioritizing addressing these weaknesses, supported by Fund TA on the Government Finance Statistics and a new PPI index, and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics will soon begin fieldwork for four major surveys ahead of the upcoming NA rebasing to FY26.' The analysis of the Survey, as in previous years, presents as positive a macro-picture as possible, focusing this year on foreign exchange reserves (less than the sum total of roll overs by friendly countries but higher than last year), a narrowing of the trade deficit (due to administrative measures targeted to reduce imports ) and a low inflation rate (less than the 2 percent considered necessary to oil the wheels of industry) while understating the rise in negativity of the large scale manufacturing sector this year (July-March) as opposed to the same period last year – negative 1.47 percent as opposed to 0.22 percent. Aurangzeb praised the professionalism of Discos' boards which he claimed was the reason behind the remarkable increase in recoveries as well as the expected Cabinet approval to borrow from commercial banks to reduce the circular debt (a proposal that was rejected last year as the discount rate at the time was too high). Electricity rates have declined on the expectation that the savings from the successful contract renegotiations with Independent Power Producers as well as the reduction in the circular debt repayments meet costs however in case costs rise the IMF has warned that government to uncap Debt Service Surcharge which is currently at 10 percent of power sector revenue. To conclude, the Survey leaves one with the distinct impression that there is little empirical evidence in the claim that 'the foundational elements for economic recovery are becoming increasingly robust and investor confidence is re-emerging' though one would fully support the Survey's contention that it is critical to transition 'from short term stabilisation measures to comprehensive structural reforms'- stabilisation defined as increased reliance on external borrowing with associated harsh upfront conditions while structural reforms are required to show empirically positive results in the tax and power sectors and state owned entities before declaring them as steps in the right direction. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
