The trade deficit for the country has climbed to $4,608.81 million for the period April to August of this year reversing a healthy declining trend, because of the continued depressing performance of exports.
Official trade statistics released by the ministry of commerce and industry today shows that this has happened as the growth rate of exports has decelerated by 2.30 per cent during the period. In August the export growth is minus 1.06 per cent. In absolute terms, exports logged $17133.85 million for the first five months of this fiscal compared to $17537.57 million in the same period last year. In August it is $3,630.52 million compared to $3,669.45 million in the same month last year.
The trade deficit is, therefore, higher than last year's figure of $3,683.64 million by $925.17 million as total imports has clocked $21,742.66 million in April-August period. In percentage terms this translates into a rise of 2.46 per cent over the same period last year.
But the continued depression in the economy is reflected in the poor oil import bill which has slipped to $6,482.74 million which is 6.03 per cent lower figure than last years' total of $6,898.57 million.