The government's data revealed on Tuesday indicated widening of trade deficit for the April month to $13.72 billion as against $13.25 billion reported during the same month a year ago.

Merchandise exports jumped during the month to $25.9 billion, an increase of 5.2% from the year-ago period. This is significant recovery considering a dip of 0.66% in exports during the previous month that is primary spurred due to double-double growth in exports of pharma and engineering goods.

In contrast, other areas of the country's export that includes the likes of gems and jewellery, ready-made garments and leather good saw a decline and this is most likely to hurt job sentiment in these labour-intensive sectors.

The export of refinery products even in the wake of rising crude oil prices saw a dip but a lower level of 4.48% in comparison to 13.22% and 27.44% in March and February respectively.

Non-gems and jewellery and non-oil exports registered a jump of 11.73% during the month.

Imports on the other hand also surged by 4.6% in comparison to the year-ago period to $39.6 billion but this was at a slower pace in comparison to 7.15% surge recorded for the March month. The surge in imports is primarily attributed to an over 41% increase in crude import in comparison to just 13% increase for the March month.

For the financial year 2017-18, trade deficit was pegged at $156.8 billion as against $105.72 billion in the earlier year mainly due to an increase in crude oil import bill.

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