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ISLAMABAD: One of the most notable features of Pakistan’s external trade prolife in the last fiscal year is a massive increase in trade with the Russian Federation, finds new research.
Total volume of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Russia reached $1.09bn in 2023-24, found the Eurasian Century Institute (ECI), an Islamabad-based think-tank dedicated to studying emerging dynamics of the Eurasian supercontinent.
This is a 31% increase over the total volume $829mn recorded during 2022-23.
Irfan Shahzad Takalvi, founding president of ECI, terms the trend as “promising, yet only starting to move towards the potential.” He however cautions that “trade balance is heavily tilted in favor of Russia.”
Pakistan’s imports from Russia increase from $740mn in 2022-23 to $1011mn in 2023-24 – a 37% increase. Pakistan’s exports to Russia in the same period actually declined from $89mn to $79mn, in the same period – a decline of around 11%.
The think-tank however notes that increase in overall trade volume with the Russian Federation is positive for relationship between Islamabad and Moscow. “It certainly is a sign of increasing inter-dependence,” notes Takalvi.
Bilateral trade volume in 2021-22, two fiscal years ago, was only $388mn, and it has gone up by almost three times in the past couple of financial years.
