Pakistan tells IMF of an $18 billion gap in its import data, $6.2 billion in 2024-25

Pakistan has reported to the International Monetary Fund that two of its own data systems disagree on the value of the country's imports by more than $18 billion over five fiscal years, ProPakistani reported on Monday, citing a national daily.

The gap, year by year

The difference is between import records kept through PRAL (the FBR's IT company, whose data feeds official statistics) and the Pakistan Single Window (PSW), the newer trade platform that handles customs declarations.

At Rs 276.91 to the dollar (19 October, see the dollar rate in Pakistan), last year's gap alone comes to about Rs 1.72 trillion worth of goods.

Where the gap came from

The investigation began in 2025 with a different mismatch: China reported far more exports to Pakistan than Pakistan recorded as imports from China. On the Prime Minister's Office's direction, the FBR set up a committee, which found that the import data used by the FBR's Directorate of Research and Statistics and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), generated through the WeBOC customs system, had not been fully updated since 2017. Goods declaration types added after that were simply not counted, so imports were understated.

A later committee set up by the finance minister compared the 15 goods declaration categories in PSW data with the 7 categories in the PRAL-based data. The facilitation scheme category accounted for most of the widening gap.

What has been sent to the IMF

The PBS prepared a detailed report on moving between the two data sources and sent it to the planning and finance ministries; it was also shared with the IMF. A high-level committee submitted its findings to the Fund, and the government says the gap has now been "identified and reconciled."

At PBS workshops in June and July 2025, participants noted that PSW-based figures show a larger trade deficit, and warned that changing the official source had to be handled carefully because Pakistan is in an IMF programme.

What happens next

The committees recommended:

• linking the PBS and the FBR's statistics directorate directly to the PSW
• reviewing reporting procedures every year
• setting up data exchanges with major trading partners, starting with China
• working with the PBS, Chinese authorities and the International Trade Centre so that Chinese goods crossing Pakistan to Afghanistan are counted correctly

Why it matters to you

The trade deficit drives demand for dollars, and a bigger deficit puts pressure on the rupee. A revised series could change how the IMF and markets read Pakistan's external position. For converting dollar figures yourself, use our currency converter.