ISLAMABAD, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani export surged by 11.11 percent during first seven months of the current fiscal year ranging from July 2017 to June 2018 as compared to exports during the same period of the preceding year, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The country's exports rose to 12.966 billion U.S. dollars during July 2017 to January 2018 against the exports worth of 11.67 billion U.S. dollars during the same period of the fiscal year 2016-17, according to trade data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

While on the year-on-year basis, Pakistan's exports rose to 1.971 billion U.S. dollars in January 2018 against 1.775 billion U.S. dollars in January 2017 thus registering an increase of 11.04 percent.

However, on monthly basis, the country's exports decreased by 0.3 percent during the month of January 2018 against the same period last years.

The country's imports increased by 14.2 percent in January 2018, thus further expanding the trade deficit to 23.97 percent.

On the other hand, the imports into the country also witnessed an increase of 18.92 percent as it jumped to 34.512 billion U.S. dollars during July 2017 to January 2018 from 29.021 billion U.S. dollars in the same period of previous year.

During the first seven months of the fiscal year, the trade deficit expanded by 24.18 percent to 21.546 billion U.S. dollars as compared to the deficit of 17.351 billion U.S. dollars in the corresponding period of last year.

According to the data, increase in imports was mainly due to the import of heavy machinery and other raw material for industrial and energy sector projects, which are likely to have a long-term positive impact on national economy.