Exports down by 20 Percent

Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razzak Dawood on Friday said the country’s exports during the month of August had declined by 20 per cent owing to the supply chain disruptions caused by the heavy monsoon rains.

“Due to the unprecedented monsoon rains, resulting in disruption of supply chain, our exports for the month of August 2020 have recorded a decline of 19.5%, as compared to August 2019. However, the positive sign is that regardless of this temporary decline, our trade balance continues to improve,” he tweeted.

“Exporters are encouraged that despite the calamity of rain and flooding, we must pursue Make in Pakistan policy and export-led growth. I have every confidence in our exporters that they will make up for the loss of August 2020.”

Detailed figures showed exports plunged by 19.5pc during August to $1.586 billion compared to $1.969bn during the corresponding period last fiscal year. Exports had recovered in the last month after falling consecutively for six months since March. The exports had shrunk after the Covid-19 led restrictions decreased foreign buying and shutdowns curtailed local production.

Despite the falling exports, Razzak Dawood said that it is good to see that the export of tractors by Millat Tractors Limited has reached over 1,000 units for the year 2019-20, which is furthering our objective of diversification of products and markets. Besides tractors, spares and components are also being exported to Europe.

He added that exports of engineering products is an important focus under the Strategic Trade Policy Framework and I hope more engineering products will increase their exports.

Pakistan has been eyeing to diversify exports away from the traditional textile sector to other engineering and information technology products in order to decrease reliance on one sector. Towards this, the government launched various initiatives to export engineering products to Africa and East Asian markets.