According to the data, provided by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the trade deficit of Pakistan has come down by 40 percent to $23.7 billion during the first eight months of the current fiscal year.
The government has been successful in saving the trade dollars in this way but it is just an administrative measure such as not clearing the letter of credit and other steps. By doing so, the government has been successful in saving the level of its foreign exchange reserves which are already touching the lowest figure of mere $4.5 billion.
Minimizing the trade deficit is one of the requirements by International Monetary Fund before releasing the longstanding loan. Controlling the imports even of the necessary items like raw material and spare parts is badly affecting the manufacturing sector of the country.
The consequences of this decreasing the level of imports include closure of a number of manufacturing plants and unemployment. Despite harming the economic activities in the country, no clear massage has been received from the international donor about releasing the trench of loan.
The ninth review talks ended on February 9 this year but the sources of Ministry of Finance have been claiming that a staff-level agreement is likely to be done soon. The government had projected the imports at about $65.6 billion for the current fiscal year but the it revised the imports to