ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s merchandise trade deficit (exp-import gap) widened nearly 23.8 percent year-on-year in December 2025 to $2.855 billion, official data showed Friday, as exports slipped by more than a fifth, while imports from overseas increased.
The sale of country’s products abroad in December 2025 significantly fell, declining by 20.4 per cent to $2.32 billion while imports surged by two percent to $6.02 billion against the same month a year ago, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.
During the first half (July–Dec) of the ongoing fiscal year 2025-26, the trade gap ballooned 34.6 percent year-on-year to 19.2 billion. Imports during this period climbed 11.28 percent to $34.4 billion, while exports slipped 8.7 percent to $15.18 billion.
PBS data however interestingly showed the services trade deficit reducing 7.75 percent in November 2025, to $139 million, compared with $150.7 million a year earlier. Services exports rose 22.3 percent to $814.25 million, while imports edged up 16.7 percent to $953.2 million.
In five months (July-November) of the current fiscal, the services exports increased by 16.77 percent to $3.83 billion and imports also up by 12.78 percent to $5.146 billion.
The deficit during this period increased by 2.55 per cent to $1.3 billion over the deficit of $1.128 billion in last fiscal.
In the last fiscal year (FY25), the services trade deficit had narrowed 15.8 percent to $2.62 billion, driven by a 9.2 percent rise in services exports to $8.4 billion, compared with a modest 2 percent increase in imports to $11 billion.
