Pakistan's exports are likely to settle above 19 billion U.S. dollars in the current financial year 2009-10, local media reported Friday.

The exports are expected to come to 19.1 billion dollars by the end of the current fiscal year, which is from July 2009 to June 2010, well above the revised export target of 17.8 billion dollars set for this fiscal year, officials told the local newspaper Daily Times.

Earlier, exports target of 18.6 billion dollars was set at the start of this financial year, however the bad performance of the export in the beginning compelled the government to revise the target downward.

However, things changed dramatically for the export sector due to soaring export of raw cotton and cotton yarn, among other products, and the export bagged big gains in recent months, said officials in Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP).

According to official statistics released for the first ten months of this fiscal year, total export proceeds came to 15.884 billion dollars, showing a 7.72 percent growth against 14.746 billion dollars of last year.

In the last two financial years, Pakistani export sector fell short of its targets and exports dipped due to various international and local factors. In the trade policy of this fiscal year, fingers were pointed at the export target in the existing scenario, which made the government bring down the export target.