ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit zoomed to an all-time high in July-April 2007-08, with the gap between what it sells abroad and what it imports rising to a massive $16.8 billion, prompting the coalition government to consider new laws to rein in the runaway deficit and form a healthy trade blueprint for future.

The latest snapshot of trade activity, reported by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) on Saturday, showed that the country’s trade gap during these 10 months saw a 50.78 per cent leap compared to the corresponding period of the last fiscal ($11.14 billion).

Pakistan’s economy during July-April 2007-08 pulled in imports worth $32.06 billion while its exports stood only at $15.25 billion. During the same period of the last fiscal, imports stood at $24.99 billion and exports at $13.84 billion. This depicts a 28.28 per cent growth in imports while only 10.17 per cent in exports.

It indicates that the country is once again marching towards another huge trade deficit, which would further jack up the current account deficit.

The figure confounded predictions that the deficit would come down with the weakening of the rupee. Instead, the trade gap has created increased pressure on the rupee to drop even further.

It is worth mentioning that the country’s burgeoning trade deficit also maligns donors’ advice to the government since 2004, for depreciating the rupee so as to increase exports and bridge trade gap.

Despite that, the Pakistani rupee value declined against the major currencies, yet the country’s economy got no respite in increasing its exports and controlling its imports.

It is important to note that previously, in its trade policy for the fiscal 2007-08, the government targeted imports at $29.6 billion and exports at $19 billion with a trade deficit of $10.6 billion.

During these 10 months, the country achieved 80 per cent of exports and surpassed the imports target by 8.31 per cent or $2.46 billion and in the remaining two months imports would further increase above the estimated target.

Private economists believe that the huge import pressure and low exports growth envisages that by the end of this fiscal, trade deficit would reach more than $20 billion.

This has also confronted the government with the dilemma of balancing its financial accounts. The depreciating Pakistani rupee and record high inflation are the other two big monsters that have badly confused the government’s economic policymakers.

In April, the country’s trade gap widened to $2.29 billion, up by 12.5 per cent from a trade shortfall of $2.03 billion recorded in March 2008. During the month under review, imports were up by 7.24 per cent to $4.1 billion while exports increased by only 1.24 per cent to $1.81 billion over the previous month. Likewise, imports during April 2008 were up by 59.32 per cent and exports by 23.09 per cent.