During the initial five months of the current financial year (2023-24), Pakistan exported textile products amounting to $6.88 billion, as reported by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
However, these exports experienced a decline of 6.50 percent compared to the same period last year, which recorded exports of $7,361.914 million. Within the textile sector, certain commodities exhibited positive growth, such as raw cotton, cotton yarn, cotton carded or combed, and towels.
Conversely, exports of cotton cloth, yarn other than cotton yarn, knitwear, bed wear, tents, canvas, tarpaulin, ready-made garments, art, silk, synthetic textiles, and other textile materials witnessed negative growth. On a year-on-year basis, textile exports in November 2023 declined by 7.21 percent, falling from $1,420.921 million in November 2022 to $1,318.536 million in November 2023.
Additionally, on a month-on-month basis, exports decreased by 8.26 percent compared to October 2023, which reported exports of $107.009 million. It is noteworthy that the country’s overall merchandise trade deficit contracted by 33.59 percent during the first five months of the current fiscal year, reaching $9.378 billion, in contrast to the deficit of $14.122 billion during the corresponding period of the previous year.
This positive trend was attributed to an increase in exports by 1.93 percent, totaling $12.172 billion, and a decrease in imports by 17.32 percent, amounting to $21.550 billion, during the specified period.
