June 17, 2022 (MLN): The import bill of oil was recorded at $2.65 billion in May 2022, 2.23x higher than May 2021, touching a historic high of $19.67bn, up by around 99% YoY during the July-May FY22 amid 65% YoY jump in Arab Light prices along with 31% YoY volumetric growth, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Thursday.
On a sequential basis, the import of petroleum products increased by 19% compared to $2.22bn in April 2022. Meanwhile, the share of petroleum products in the total import bill of $6.77bn stood at 39% in May 2022.
With regards to the transport sector, the import bill posted a growth of 55% YoY to $4bn during 11MFY22 against $2.62bn over last year, mainly led by massive imports of road motor vehicles (build unit, CKD/SKD) worth $3.42bn. In the same period last year, the country imported $2.18bn worth of road motor vehicles.
In the month of May alone, the sector imported worth $341.77mn vehicles, observing an increase of 17.27% YoY whereas, on monthly basis, it showed a drop of 6.43% MoM in the import bill.
The import of medicinal products went down by 43% YoY and 35% MoM in May 2022 to clock in at $88.61mn. However, during 11MFY22, the medicinal import bill rose to a huge $3.95bn, up by 3.45x YoY from $1.14bn a year ago.
The country’s food imports widened by 12% YoY to $7.55bn in 11MFY22 from $6.9bn over the corresponding period last year to bridge the gap in food production. In May 2022, the food import bill inched up by 8% YoY and 3.43% MoM to clock in at $703.15mn.
