Pharmaceutical products export plunge by 2.57pc: PBS

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data revealed that exports of pharmaceutical products witnessed a nominal reduction of 2.57 percent during the 11 months of the ongoing fiscal year (2019-20) as compared to the exports of the corresponding period of last year.

The pharmaceutical exports were recorded at the US $192.549 million during July-May (2019-20) as against the export of US $197.629 million during July-May (2018-19), showing negative growth of 2.57 percent, according to the PBS data.

In terms of quantity, the exports of pharmaceutical products however raised by 2.67 percent by going up from 12,869 metric tons to 13,213 metric tons.

In the meantime, year-on-year basis the pharmaceutical goods export reduced by 10.05 percent during the month of May 2020 as compared to the same month of 2019.

The PBS data further revealed that the pharmaceutical exports in May 2020 were witnessed at the US $16.055 million against the export of $17.848 million in the month of May 2019.

It is worth mentioning here that the country’s trade deficit witnessed a momentous reduction in 11 months during 2020 and declined by 27.75% as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The exports decreased by 6.85% and reached $19.801 billion against the exports of $21.256 billion in the same period of 2019.

Alternatively, the country’s imports witnessed a significant diminishing of 18.93% and went down from $50.410 billion last financial year to $40.866 billion of the same period of the current financial year.