Medicinal imports up by 2% in FY19

Aug 06, 2019: The imports of medicinal products into the country during financial year (2018-19) witnessed an increase of 1.99 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Pakistan imported medicinal products of worth $1093.366 million during July-June (2018-19) compared to the imports of $1072.070 million during July-June (2017-18), showing growth of 1.99 percent, according to latest data issued by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

In terms of quantity, Pakistan imported 23.217 metric tons of medicinal products during the year as compared to the imports of 22.394 metric tons during corresponding period of last year, showing an increase of 3.68 percent in term of quantity.

Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the medicinal imports witnessed positive growth of 0.12 percent in June 2019 when compared to the imports of the same month of last year.

The medicinal imports during June 2019 were recorded at $ 84.696 million against the imports of $ 84.593 million in June 2018.

On month-on-month basis, the medicinal imports also witnessed increase of 6.78 percent during June 2019 when compared to the imports of $79.318 million in May 2019, the PBS data revealed.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country's merchandize trade deficit plunged by 15.33 percent during the fiscal year 2018-19 compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The trade deficit contracted to $31.820 billion during July-June (2018-19) against the deficit of $37.583 billion recorded during July-June (2017-18).

The exports during the period under review witnessed decrease of one percent by falling from $23.212 billion during last year to $22.979 billion during the ongoing fiscal year.

On the other hand, the imports declined by 9.86 percent to $54.799 billion during the period under review from $60.795 billion last year, the data revealed.

On year-on-year basis, the merchandize exports declined by 8.77 per cent, from $1.882 billion in June 2018 to $1.717 billion in June 2019 while the imports declined by 22.80 percent from $5.652 billion in June 2018 to $4.364 billion in June 2019, the data revealed.

APP