Islamabad – (Web Desk) – Pakistan’s trade deficit for July May FY26 climbed 17.48% to $34.758 billion, as exports dropped and imports kept rising, putting fresh pressure on the country’s external account.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reported that imports grew 5.94% to $62.66 billion during July-May. Exports, however, fell 5.6% to $27.9 billion, down from $29.56 billion in the same period last year.
May 2026 brought some good news. The monthly trade gap narrowed 13.7% year-on-year to $2.58 billion. Exports rose slightly by 1.26% to $2.71 billion while imports fell 6.6% to $5.287 billion, hinting that domestic demand may be cooling off.
The services sector gave some relief too. The services trade deficit shrank 17.4% to $2.04 billion in July-April FY26. Services exports jumped 17.7% to $8.3 billion, growing faster than the 8.6% rise in services imports.
In April alone, the services gap almost disappeared, falling sharply to just $26.1 million from $163 million a year ago. Exports surged 21.7% to $915 million while imports dipped 2.8%.
Analysts say IT and business services remain one of the few bright spots in Pakistan’s trade picture. But they warn that the services sector is still too small to make up for the large goods trade gap.
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