Pakistan’s trade gap surges 55 per cent in April amid falling exports

KARACHI: Pakistan’s trade deficit widened to $3.39 billion in April 2025, up more than 55 per cent from the previous month, as exports declined and imports increased, according to fresh data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Exports fell to $2.14 billion in April, a drop of 19 per cent from $2.64 billion recorded in March. Meanwhile, imports rose by 14.5 per cent, reaching $5.53 billion, compared to $4.82 billion in the previous month.

On a year-on-year basis, the trade gap also worsened. Exports in April 2025 were down by nearly 9 per cent compared to $2.35 billion in April 2024. Imports, on the other hand, rose by over 14 per cent from $4.84 billion to $5.52 billion over the same period.

This led to a year-on-year increase of nearly 36 per cent in the monthly trade deficit, which climbed from $2.49 billion in April last year to $3.38 billion in April this year.

Between July and April — the first ten months of the current fiscal year — Pakistan’s exports reached $26.85 billion, showing a 6.25 per cent rise compared to $25.27 billion in the same period of the previous year. Imports during this period totalled $48.21 billion, marking a 7.4 per cent increase from $44.9 billion.

As a result, the cumulative trade deficit for the ten-month period stood at $21.35 billion — up 8.8 per cent from $19.62 billion recorded during the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.

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