The inflation has eased as low as 10.31 percent in July-January 2010 as against the level of 24.43 percent recorded during the same period of last year, according to Federal Bureau of Statistics. Overall Imports into the country during July-December (2009-10) declined by 16.34 percent, resulting in narrowing the trade deficit by 29.44 during the period.
Imports during the first half of current financial year were recorded at $15.994 billion as against the imports of $19.117 billion during July-December (2008-09), the FBS figures revealed. The overall trade deficit during July-December was recorded at $6.803 billion as against the trade deficit of $9.642 billion recorded during same period of last year, showing a negative growth of 29.44 percent, the figures revealed.
The government has already launched 'Strategic Trade Policy framework 2009-12', setting out the policy guidelines and identifying the principal action areas. It has set the export growth target of 6 percent for the current fiscal year, 10 percent for the next fiscal year and the export growth target for the year 2011-12 has been set at 13 percent. The overseas workers' remittances amounted to $3,832.6 million in July-November 2009-10 as against $2,966.5 million, showing an increase of 29.2 percent over the same period of last year.
The Federal Bureau of Statistics' tax collections stood at Rs 579.5 billion on net basis during July-December 2009-10 as compared to $553.8 billion recorded during the same period of last year, thereby posting an increase of 4.6 percent. The Large-scale Manufacturing has registered a positive growth of 0.67 percent during July-October 2009-10 against the same period of last year.