Pakistan\u2019s trade deficit with Gulf nations widened 28.4% to $1.4 billion in July, the first month of the current fiscal year, driven by rising imports from the oil-rich region, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data showed this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year in July, the gap with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) \u2014 Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain \u2014 had stood at $1.09 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time around, exports to the bloc fell 12.5% year-on-year to $277.3 million, while imports rose 19% to $1.68 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pakistan has been negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with the GCC to improve market access and signed preliminary accords in Riyadh two years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a significant development as the FTA is the first by GCC with any country since 2009 and marks a milestone in both sides\u2019 economic cooperation,\u201d then-commerce minister Gohar Ejaz said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pakistan has continued to rely heavily on petroleum supplies from GCC states since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its imports from the bloc totaled $17.9 billion in FY2024-25, nearly matching earnings from the country\u2019s textile exports. In return, Pakistan exported $3.79 billion worth of goods and services to the GCC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the data, the widening deficit reflects surging imports from the UAE, Pakistan\u2019s largest oil supplier in the bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
July imports from the Emirates reached $816 million, while the FY25 bill stood at $8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UAE is also Pakistan\u2019s biggest export market in the GCC, buying $2.12 billion worth of goods last year, SBP data showed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saudi Arabia and Qatar were other key suppliers, exporting $3.8 billion and $3.5 billion worth of oil and gas to Pakistan respectively in FY25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pakistan\u2019s cash-strapped government is struggling to rein in its external account by curbing imports and boosting exports, but the country\u2019s overall trade deficit rose nine percent to $26 billion last year, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan\u2019s trade deficit with Gulf nations widened 28.4% to $1.4 billion in July, the first month of the current fiscal year, driven by rising imports from the oil-rich region, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data showed this week. Last year in July, the gap with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) \u2014 Saudi Arabia, the United […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"category-pakistan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qeyadat.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}