Pakistan has gone well with the noticeable rise in textile exports to the Italian market in FY20, amid COVID-19-fuelled lockdown and supply chain disruption, said Jauhar Saleem, Pakistan’s ambassador to Italy. Italy has become the eighth highest gross domestic product (GDP) economy worldwide of $2 billion, according to Saleem. It is the European Union’s (EU) third largest economy after Germany and France and Pakistan’s 9th largest export destination as it is part to Pakistan’s biggest diaspora.
In Italy the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its economy are failing, and the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) is predicting a downturn in Italy ‘s economy of 9-11 percent, while this year the Italian central bank is predicting a decline in its GDP of 9-13 percent. Pakistan had a trade deficit of EUR 164 million with Italy in FY19, the ambassador suggested. In fiscal year 2019-20, Pakistan managed to report a trade surplus of $210 million despite a coronavirus outbreak and a lockdown in the region.
