Tea imports shrink 15.61 percent in 3 quarters

The tea imports into the country witnessed declined 15.61 percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year (2019-20) as against the same period of last fiscal year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.

The tea imports into the country were recorded at $376.240 million during July-March (2019-20) as against imports of $445.816 million in July-March (2018-19), according to latest PBS data.

In terms of quantity, the tea imports witnessed decline of 8.68 percent during the period under review by going down from the imports of 170.311 metric tons last year to 155.528 metric tons during the current year.

The imports of overall food commodities during the period under review declined by 7 percent as these decline from $4261.355 million last year to $3963.258 million during the current year.

Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the tea imports into the country decreased by 0.69 percent during the month of March 2020 compared to the same month of last year.

The tea imports into the country in March 2020 were recorded at $51.872 million compared to the imports of $52.231 million in March 2019.

On month-on-month basis, the food imports increased by 5.36 percent in March 202 when compared to the imports of $49.234 million in February 2019, the PBS data revealed.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country's overall trade deficit witnessed significant reduction in first three quarters of current financial year and declined by 26.45% as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

During the period under review country's exports registered about 2.23% growth, whereas imports reduce by 14.42%.

During the period from July-March (2019-20), the exports witnessed an increase of 2.23% and reached to $17.451 billion against the exports of $17.071 billion of the same period of last year, it added.

The country's imports witnessed significant decrease of 14.42 % and went down from $40.679 billion in first three quarters of last financial year to $34.814 billion of same period of current financial year, it said.

Based on the figures, the trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at $17.363 against the deficit of $23.608 during last year, showing decline of 26.45 percent.