Islamabad. Cash-strapped Pakistan's trade deficit has reached a record level of $ 48.66 billion in the ended financial year. This is a 57 percent increase from $30.96 billion a year ago. Media reports said on Sunday that the trade deficit has widened significantly as imports remained higher than expected. The fiscal year of Pakistan is from July to June. According to the report of 'The Dawn' newspaper, the Shahbaz Sharif government had in May banned the import of more than 800 non-essential luxury items.

Despite this, the trade deficit has remained very high. The report said that in June, Pakistan's trade deficit increased by more than 32 percent to $ 4.84 billion. It was $3.66 billion in the same month a year ago. The trade deficit for the fiscal year ended 2017-18 is much higher than the all-time high of $37 billion in 2017-18. At that time imports mainly increased through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. At the same time, the trade deficit narrowed to $31.8 billion in the financial year 2018-19. This was further reduced to $23.2 billion in 2019-20. The trade deficit again widened to $30.8 billion in 2020-21.