The latest trade figures reveal a complex economic situation, marked by strong performances in niche exports alongside swelling import bills that underscore the country’s persistent external vulnerabilities. While sports goods, surgical instruments, and cement exports recorded impressive growth, the broader picture shows a troubling rise in imports of petroleum, machinery, food items, and transport vehicles. The numbers, though mixed, provide a telling snapshot of both opportunity and risk for the economy at a time when policy reforms are being set in motion.
Pakistan’s commercial imbalance ballooned alarmingly in August 2025, vaulting over 30 percent year-on-year to settle at $2.87 billion, according to figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The surge, fueled by a revival in imports alongside a punishing contraction in exports, has further burdened the already fragile external account of the nation. Twelve months earlier, in August 2024, the deficit stood at $2.20 billion. The current swell has been powered by a 6.4 percent elevation in imports, now recorded at $5.29 billion, while exports withered by 12.5 percent to $2.42 billion.
On a month-to-month comparison, the gulf narrowed modestly, dipping 8.8 percent from July’s $3.14 billion figure, a short-lived relief. Yet, across the first two months of FY2025-26, the cumulative deficit swelled 29 percent, climbing to $6.01 billion against last year’s $4.66 billion. Imports during July–August spiked 14.2 percent to $11.12 billion, while exports managed only a hesitant crawl upward by 0.6 percent to $5.1 billion.
This statistical tableau highlights the looming storm clouds over Pakistan’s external financing requirements, as import appetite continues to eclipse sluggish export momentum, intensifying stress on reserves and exchange rate stability.
In contrast, PBS unveiled a brighter chapter in the services trade for July 2025. The services deficit contracted nearly by half, plummeting 48.9 percent to $125.9 million compared to $246.4 million in July 2024.
Services exports vaulted upward by 18.3 percent to $745.5 million, while imports retreated fractionally by 0.61 percent to $871.4 million. In the same month a year earlier, services exports had been logged at $630.4 million, while imports rested at $876.8 million.
Looking at the broader fiscal window, the services trade gap slimmed by 15.84 percent in FY2025, closing at $2.62 billion against $3.1 billion in FY2024. The country had availed foreign services worth $11 billion during FY2025, while dispatching $8.4 billion worth of its own services abroad. The preceding fiscal year documented $7.68 billion in services exports alongside $10.8 billion in imports, showing a 9.23 percent surge in exports and a softer 2.01 percent rise in imports.
Meanwhile, textile shipments painted a more spirited portrait in July 2025. Exports from the sector soared by nearly one-third, clocking $1.52 billion compared with $1.27 billion in the previous year’s corresponding month. This resurgence was propelled by surging appetite for garments and knitwear. PBS data indicated knitwear exports leapt 43.5 percent to $513.3 million, while readymade apparel advanced 35.5 percent to $400.2 million. Bedwear consignments surged 38.3 percent to $296.3 million, and towel exports climbed 33.9 percent to $93.87 million. Even cotton cloth, often stagnant, inched ahead by 1.2 percent to $141.8 million. Collectively, the textile cluster’s exports surged 32.1 percent year-on-year in July 2025.
Conversely, the food export ledger bore a bleaker tale. Overall, food exports declined 10.3 percent to $427 million. Rice, Pakistan’s hallmark foreign exchange earner, contracted 18.3 percent to $168.1 million, with basmati rice plunging nearly 40 percent to $55.7 million. Vegetable consignments collapsed by 45 percent, shrinking to $15.9 million. Yet, certain bright spots gleamed—meat exports ticked up 9.8 percent to $40.56 million, fruit exports soared 43.6 percent to $58 million, while fish and seafood leapt 18.6 percent to $22.45 million.
Exports of sports goods flourished, climbing 32.5 percent to $38.9 million, with football shipments spearheading the surge. Football consignments leapt 44.7 percent, reaching $25.7 million. Surgical instruments followed suit, expanding by 33.4 percent to $38.3 million, while cement exports staged a spectacular rise, more than doubling by 141 percent to $34.9 million. By contrast, chemical and pharmaceutical exports slumped 24 percent to $102.6 million, a decline largely driven by a steep 40.7 percent contraction in plastic products to $25 million, alongside a modest 1 percent fall in pharmaceutical goods to $33.64 million.
On the import ledger, expenditures swelled across multiple sectors. Petroleum imports advanced 6.4 percent to $1.35 billion, machinery purchases ballooned 29.4 percent to $927.5 million, and food imports soared 44.9 percent to $744 million. Within petroleum, refined products climbed 27.4 percent to $634.7 million, crude oil swelled 10.44 percent to $398.3 million, and LPG gained 10.7 percent to $81.9 million. Conversely, LNG imports dipped heavily by 30.4 percent to $230.8 million.
Machinery inflows painted a striking picture: textile machinery surged 115.4 percent to $67.1 million, power generation equipment lifted 62.5 percent to $56.8 million, while construction and mining machinery rose 8.88 percent to $11 million. Agricultural machinery nearly doubled and a quarter, soaring 124 percent to $14.4 million. Telecom-related imports escalated sharply, up 87 percent to $192 million, with mobile phone consignments skyrocketing 125.6 percent to $145.3 million. Office machinery, including data-processing gear, jumped 98 percent to $62.7 million. By contrast, electrical machinery receded 16.46 percent to $292.4 million.
The food segment exhibited an even sharper tilt upward. Palm oil inflows rose 26.1 percent to $302 million, tea imports nudged higher by 0.27 percent to $42 million, and pulses advanced 10.9 percent to $73.8 million. Infant milk imports nearly doubled, soaring 92.6 percent to $15 million. Soya bean oil stood out dramatically, vaulting to $31.8 million compared to a meager $1.01 million a year earlier.
Transport-related imports also ballooned, surging 167 percent to $307 million. Within this bracket, inflows of completely and semi-knocked down (CKD/SKD) motor vehicles leapt 143.6 percent to $271.4 million. Imports of completely built-up (CBU) cars grew 41 percent to $32.8 million, while CKD/SKD cars rocketed by an eye-catching 292 percent to $134 million.
In the backdrop of these figures, Pakistan is charting an expansive industrial policy, envisioned as a five-year blueprint. The strategy aspires to pare down production costs, breathe life into moribund units, and galvanize exports, underpinned by cheaper energy, stronger contract enforcement, and investor-oriented reforms.
The trade data paints a dual narrative—exports in certain high-demand categories are showing robust gains, yet the rapid expansion of imports across essential and industrial sectors threatens to erode these achievements. As Pakistan rolls out its sweeping five-year industrial policy aimed at cutting costs, reviving struggling industries, and accelerating exports, the challenge lies in balancing this surge in import dependency with sustainable export-led growth. Success will depend on whether the reforms can deliver cheaper energy, enforce contracts, and build investor trust—turning vulnerabilities into momentum for long-term stability.