Trade deficit shrinks over 40% reaching $1.7 billion in December. : Pakistan’s trade deficit contracted by over 40% last month due to a continued tight lid on imports and, for the first time, a better performance in exports in this fiscal year that crossed $2.8 billion – the highest mark in one and a half years. The trade deficit – the gap between export receipts and import payments – shrank to $1.7 billion in December over a year ago, reported the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.