Pakistan’s oil import bill drops 27% YoY to $7.35bn in 1HFY24: SBP

January 17, 2024 (MLN): The import bill of the petroleum group clocked in at $7.35 billion in 1HFY24, marking a decline of 26.95% YoY compared to the import bill of $10.07bn recorded in 1HFY23, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.

On a year-on-year basis, the import bill of petroleum products went down by 2.23% YoY compared to $1.26bn in December 2022.

The share of petroleum products in the total import bill stood at 30.22% in December 2023.

On a monthly basis, the comparison reflects a decline of 6.8% MoM compared to the import cost of $1.33bn recorded during November 2023.

It is pertinent to mention that the overall import bill has gone down by 3.65% YoY and 7.88% MoM to $4.092bn in December.

Cumulatively in 6MFY24, total imports marked a decline of 14.69% YoY to $25.24bn compared to imports of $29.59bn in 6FY23.

Commodity-wise, the second largest imports were for agricultural and other chemicals as the import bill clocked in at $664.07m in December, down by 4.82% YoY and 23.01% MoM.

Cumulatively in 6MFY24, agricultural and other chemicals imports fell by 4.05% YoY to $4.522bn compared to imports of $4.713bn in 6MFY23.

Going forward through the data, imports for the machinery group surged by 93.6% YoY and 12.59% MoM to clock in at $621.8m.

Similarly, during 6MFY24, the imports for the same group showed a rise of 15.94% YoY to clock in at $3.12bn.

Pakistan spent around $553.36m in December 2023 on food imports, witnessing a downside of 20.24% YoY and 15.74% MoM.

During 6MFY24, the import bill of the same sector registered a notable drop of 19.61% to $3.48bn compared to $4.33bn in 6MFY23.

The data released by the central bank further shows that the import bill for the metal group increased 23.33% YoY to $361.34m in December against the imports of $292.98m in the SPLY.

The import bill associated with the textile group clocked at $246.62m, witnessing a drop of 52.33% YoY due to a massive decline in the import of raw cotton.

Copyright Mettis Link News