ISLAMABAD – The overall imports of petroleum group witnessed 6.7 percentincrease during the eight months of the current fiscal year as compared tothe corresponding period of the last year.
During the period under review, the total imports of petroleum group stoodat $ 9618.584 million against imports of $9014.937 million of the year2017-18, according to latest data issued by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics(PBS).
The products that contribute in inflated petroleum import bill included,crude oil, the imports of which surged by 21.10 percent as $ 3036.295million were spent on purchase of the commodity from international marketsin first eight months of the year 2018-19 as compared to spending of$2507.187 million spent during the same period of the previous year.
The import of liquefied natural gas also witnessed a sharp increase of57.84 percent to $2188.695 million during the period under review againstimport of $1386.647 million in same period of last year.
On the other hand, the petroleum products import during the period underreview however decreased by 14.27 percent as it declined to $4211.221million from $4912.448 million recorded during July-December (2017-18).The imports of liquefied petroleum gas also decreased by 12.63 percent,form $208.483 million to $182.162 million during the current year.
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Meanwhile, on year on year basis, the imports of petroleum productswitnessed a decrease of 16.7 percent in February 2019 when compared to theimports of the same month of last year.The petroleum group imports during February 2019 were recorded at $930.819million against the imports of $1117.444 million last year.On month-on-month basis, the petroleum group imports also slid by 8.99percent in February when compared to the imports of $1022.747 million inJanuary 2019, the data revealed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s merchandize tradedeficit plunged by 11.03 percent during July-February (2018-19) as thedeficit contracted by over $2.668 billion to $21.523 billion duringJuly-February (2018-19) against the deficit of $24.191 billion recordedduring same period of the previous year.The exports during the period under review witnessed an increase of 1.85percent to $15.113 billion from $14.838 billion during July-February(2017-18).
On the other hand, the imports declined by 6.13 percent to $36.636 billionfrom $39.029 billion recorded during first eight months of current fiscalyear, the data revealed.
