November 20, 2019 (MLN): Pakistan’s import bill stood at $3.6 billion during the month of October, showing an increase of 9% as compared to previous month and a decline of 23.5% as compared to same period of last year.
Resultantly, the expenditure on import declined by around 23% during the first four months of current Fiscal year, from $19 billion to $14.6 billion, a report by State bank of Pakistan revealed on Wednesday.
Pakistan continued to import majorly from its top five favorite import avenues, i.e. China, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, United States of America and Saudi Arabia. This can be said with a fair amount of certainty as around 53% of the total imports was accounted for by these five countries.
China continued its legacy of being the largest import avenue for Pakistan, for the latter imported around $848.1 million worth of goods from it. This brought the total import bill for the first four months at $3.14 billion, i.e. down by merely 9% as compared to same period of last year.
This was followed by United Arab Emirates, as Pakistan imported around $586.3 million worth of goods and services from it during the month. While this figure is almost the same as that of previous month, it is 35.7% less than the amount recorded in same period of last year. Furthermore, import from UAE during the first four months of FY20 has now reached $2.44 billion, i.e. 30.3% less than the same period of last year.
Singapore emerged as the third largest import avenue for Pakistan, as the total imports from this country amounted to $198.5 million during October, showing a growth of 32% as compared to previous month and a decline of 48% as compared to same month of last year. So far, Pakistan’s import from Singapore has reached $751.7 million in the current Fiscal Year, marking a decline of 50% against the same period of last year.
The imports from Saudi Arabia and United States were almost neck-and-neck, as Pakistan spent around $505.3 million and $522 million respectively on the goods imported from these countries. Nonetheless, Pakistan increased its import from Saudi Arabia by almost 41.8% as compared to previous month, and United States by nearly 69.7% as compared to previous month.
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