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