Pakistan's Nov oil import bill edges up 5.76% YoY to $1.32bn: SBP

December 18, 2023 (MLN): The import bill of the petroleum group clocked in at $1.32 billion in November 2023, marking an increase of 5.76% YoY compared to the import bill of $1.25bn recorded in November 2022, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.

While on a monthly basis, the import bill of petroleum products remained largely unchanged.

It is pertinent to mention that the overall import bill has inched up by 2.86% YoY and 1.82% MoM to $4.45bn in November.

Cumulatively in 5MFY24, total imports marked a decline of 16% YoY to $21.28bn compared to imports of $25.34bn in 5FY23.

The share of petroleum products in the total import bill stood at 29.76% in November 2023.

In 5MF24, the import bill of petroleum products went significantly down by 35% to $5.72bn against $8.8bn recorded in the same period last year.

With regards to the transport sector, the import bill posted a decline of 12% YoY to $109m in November 2023, against $124.2m in November 2023 while on a sequential basis, the import of the same sector witnessed an up of around 9% MoM compared to $100.4mn in October 2023.

Cumulatively in 4MFY24, transport sector imports increased by 3% YoY to $627.72m compared to imports of $647.6m in 5MFY23.

Furthermore, importing agricultural and other chemicals increased by 10.67% YoY and 12.5% MoM to clock in at $863.17m.

Meanwhile, during 5MFY24, the imports for the same group showed a decline of 3.8% YoY to clock in at $3.86bn.

Pakistan spent around $657m in November 2023 on food imports, witnessing a 14% upsurge in YoY while every month, the amount remained largely unchanged.

During 5MFY24, the import bill of the same sector registered a notable drop of 19.5% to $2.92m compared to $3.63m in 5MFY22.

The data released by the central bank further shows that the machinery import increased 43% YoY to $552.27m in November against the imports of $386.13m in the SPLY.

The import bill associated with the metal group clocked at $431.87m, witnessing a rise of 44% YoY due to a massive jump in the import of iron and steel reported at $204.4m in November.

Under the textile group, the country incurred import expenditure worth $266.854m during the review period, down by 40.42% YoY.

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