Pakistan to cut export target

Pakistan to cut export target

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is likely to cut its export target for the current fiscal year ending in June to US$8.4 billion from an already lowered estimate of $9.2 billion, the Nation newspaper reported on Sunday.

It quoted a senior Commerce Ministry official as saying the government now expected exports over the full July-June year of $8.4 billion due to the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The government had already cut its estimate to $9.2 billion following the air attacks on New York and Washington due to a slump in orders for Pakistan's vital textile industry, which accounted for more than half the country's exports in the last fiscal year.

Textile industry officials say U.S. and European orders are now picking up and the outlook is more hopeful.

The Nation said Pakistan's trade deficit in the first nine months of the current financial year (July-March) was $1.31 billion, with exports at $6.54 billion and imports at $7.38 billion. It gave no comparative figures.

March exports were $724 million, 10.6 percent higher than in February, and imports were $886 million, a 20 percent month-on- month surge, it said. -- Reuters