Medicinal products import increases 10.31pc to $ 834mn

ISLAMABAD: The import of medicinal products into the country witnessed an increase of 10.31 percent during the first three quarter of the current financial year (2020-21) as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Pakistan imported medicinal products worth $834.717 million during July-March (2020-21) as compared to the imports of $756.696 million during July-March (2019-20), according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

In terms of quantity, however medicinal imports decreased by 0.56 percent, as the country imported 15,896 metric tonnes of medicinal products during the period under review as compared to the imports of 15,986 metric tonnes last year.

Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, medicinal imports into the country during March 2021 rose by 46.82 percent, from $78.891 million in March 2020 to $115.824 million.

On monthly basis, medicinal imports during March 2021 grew by 10.97 percent when compared to the imports of $104.372 million in February 2021.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s trade deficit witnessed an increase of 20.08 percent during the first three quarters of financial year 2020-21 as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The exports witnessed increase of 7.14 percent and reached to $18.688 billion against the exports of $17.443 billion of the same period of last year.

On the other hand, the country’s imports also rose by 13.59 percent and went up from $34.791 billion last fiscal year to $39.519 billion of same period of fiscal year 2020-21.

Based on the figures, the trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at $20.831 billion against the deficit of $17.348 billion during last year, showing increase of 20.08 percent.