Economy
In reply to the discussion: STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, December 12, 2011 [View all]Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)Pakistan trade deficit widens
By Syed Fazl-e-Haider
KARACHI - Pakistan's trade deficit - the gap between exports and imports - widened by 55.5% last month compared with a year earlier, putting further pressure on the government is it seeks to pay back loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) secured during its earlier 2008 debt crisis.
The trade gap widened to US$2.17 billion in November, as exports fell to $1.55 billion from $1.72 billion a year earlier - and down 18.2% from the previous month - while imports grew to $3.72 billion from $3.12 billion. The deficit was $1.71 billion in October, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS). For the first five months (July-November) of current fiscal year, it widened 36% to $9.06 billion from $6.6 billion in the same period last year.
Increased foreign inflows from home remittances failed to contain the current account deficit, which widened to $1.55 billion during the July-October period from $541 million a year earlier.
The outlook for the export sector is grim, with the European debt crisis crimping demand in that market even as gas shortages are holding back output and ruining delivery schedules in the important cotton industry - already hit by a violence and deteriorating law and order in Karachi, the country's largest city.
Further squeezing the country, its declining currency is raising the cost of its dollar-denominated debt as it prepares to repay an existing IMF loan early next year. Rising international oil prices are adding to the government's debt burden.
more at link
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ML13Df02.html