Although Pakistan possesses unexploited oil and gas resources, its failure to explore and utilise such natural resources made the country highly-reliable on imported oil and petroleum products to meet the energy demands of the nation. It has been forecasted that Pakistan’s oil imports would increase from US $13.22 billion from the initial US $10.09 in the past year.

Pakistan’s import products are made up of petroleum and petroleum products, plastics, transportation equipment, paper and paperboard to name a few. All in all, the total value of these imports could reach US $32.71 billion. The country’s major importing partners would include China which items made up 15.35% of total imports, Saudi Arabia (10.5%), the United Arab Emirates (10%) and the United States (approximately 5%).

Chart Showing GDP Growth Compared to rest of world

The Economic Complexity Index (ECI) considers Pakistan’s economy as the 70th largest in the world and 89th in terms of complexity. The country’s total export value could reach US $20.29 billion.

Pakistan heavily exports textiles such as house linens ($2.7 billion), non-retail pure cotton yarn ($2.4 billion), and heavy pure woven cotton ($1.2 billion), food such as rice ($2.1 billion) and leather goods and manufactures.

Such commodities are exported to various countries such as the United States ($3.59 billion), China ($3.2 billion) Afghanistan ($2.3 billion) and the United Arab Emirates ($1.8 billion).