May 21, 2019: The overall imports of petroleum group witnessed 4.01 percent increase during the first ten months of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of the last year.
During the period under review, the total imports of petroleum group stood at $11.899 billion against imports of $11.440 billion of the year 2017-18, 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 14.32 percent as $ 3810.811 million were spent on purchase of the commodity from international markets in first ten months of the year 2018-19 as compared to spending of $3333.598 million spent during the same period of the previous year.
The import of liquefied natural gas also witnessed a sharp increase of 46.06 percent to US $2721.490 million during the period under review against import of US $1863.286 million in same period of last year.
On the other hand, the petroleum products that witnessed decline in imports during the period under review included petroleum products, which witnessed negative growth of 14.38 percent by falling from $6008.390 last year to $5144.459 million.
The imports of liquefied petroleum gas also decreased by 5.2 percent, from $234.904 million to $222.685 million during the current year.
The imports of all other petroleum group products, however increased by 18.89 percent, from $ 0.180 million last year to US $ 0.214 million.
Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the imports of petroleum products increased 5.72 percent in April 2019 when compared to the imports of the same month of last year.
The petroleum group imports during April 2019 were recorded at $1285.655 million against the imports of $1216.128 million last year.
On month-on-month basis, the petroleum group imports increased by 29.16 percent in April when compared to the imports of $995.427 million in March 2019, the data revealed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the country's merchandize trade deficit plunged by 12.82 percent during the first ten months of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year.
The trade deficit contracted by $3.867 billion to $26.302 billion during July-April (2018-19) against the deficit of $30.169 billion recorded during July-April (2017-18).
The exports during the period under review witnessed nominal decrease of 0.12% by falling from $19.191 billion during last year to $19.169 billion during the ongoing fiscal year.
On the other hand, the imports declined by 7.88% to $45.471 billion during the period under review from $49.360 billion last year, the data revealed.
(APP)
