Jul-Jan period: Petroleum group imports drop 12.06pc to $9.332bn

ISLAMABAD: Petroleum group imports witnessed a negative growth of 12.06 percent during the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year and stood at $9.332 billion when compared to $10.611 billion during the same period of last fiscal year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.

The data of exports and imports released by PBS revealed that petroleum group imports increased by 0.03 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis and stood at $1.327 billion in January 2024 when compared to $1.326 billion during January 2023.

On a month-on-month basis, it registered 14.52 per cent negative growth when compared to $1.551 billion in December 2023.

Petroleum products imports witnessed 25.94 per cent negative growth during July-January 2023-24 and remained at $3.621 billion compared to $4.889 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.

On a MoM basis, it registered 19.72 per cent negative growth and stood at $427.573 million in January 2024 when compared to $532.615 million in December 2023.

On a YoY basis, petroleum products registered 37.82 per cent negative growth when compared to $687.613 million in January 2023.

The overall imports during July-January of the fiscal year 2023-24 totaled $30.938 billion(provisional) as against $36.034 billion during the corresponding period of last year showing a decrease of 14.14per cent.

The imports in January 2024 were $4.771 billion (provisional) as compared to $4.650 billion in December 2023 showing an increase of 2.60per cent over December 2023 but decreased by 1.14per cent as compared to $4.826 billion in January 2023.

The main commodities of imports during January 2024 were natural gas, liquefied (Rs124,784 million),petroleum products(Rs119,858 million), petroleum crude (Rs102,735 million), electric machinery and apparatus(Rs78,626 million), palm oil (Rs62,595 million), plastic materials (Rs57,418 million),mobile phones (Rs54,642 million), fertiliser manufactured (Rs50,102 million), wheat unmilled(Rs49,434 million), and iron and steel (Rs43,799 million).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024