Pakistan’s Petroleum import bill rises 11% YoY in March: SBP

April 17, 2025 (MLN): The import bill of the petroleum group rose to $1.22 billion in March 2025, marking an increase of 11.16% YoY compared to the import bill of $1.09bn recorded in March 2024, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.

Conversely, the imports of petroleum products fell by 15.7% MoM compared to the bill of $1.45bn in February 2025.

It is pertinent to mention that the overall import bill increased by 8.22% YoY to $4.9bn in March.

While on a monthly basis, imports fell by 2.25% MoM compared to the imports worth $5.06 bn recorded in February 2025.

Cumulatively in 9MFY25, total imports marked an uptick of 11.08% YoY to $43.38bn compared to imports of $39.05bn in 9MFY24.

The share of petroleum products in the total import bill stood at 24.6% in March 2025.

In 9MFY25, the import bill of petroleum products went significantly up by 5.88% YoY to $4.68bn against $4.42bn recorded in the same period last year.

With regards to the food group, the import bill posted a decline of 2.89% YoY and a decrease of 0.14% MoM to $730.6m in March 2025, against $752.44m in SPLY and $731.7m in February 2025.

This decline is attributed to a fall in imports of Palm oil that stood at $340m compared to $275.8m in SPLY and $297.5m in February 2025, depicting a rose of 23.3% MoM and an increase of 14.3% YoY.

Cumulatively in 9MFY25, imports from the Food group inched down by 0.77% YoY to $5.63bn compared to imports of $5.68bn in 9MFY24.

Going forward, the import of agricultural and other chemicals inched up by 1.14% MoM and up by 0.32% YoY to clock in at $694.27m.

Meanwhile, during 9MFY25, the imports for the same group showed an increase of 1.3% YoY to clock in at $6.82bn.

The country’s machinery imports went down by 3.6% YoY to $706.33m in March 2025 as compared to $733.18m in March 2024.

Conversely, on a monthly basis, the machinery group’s import up by 5.23% MoM compared to the import worth $671.2m in February.

Under the group, the imports of Electrical Machinery & Apparatus witnessed a decline of 22.4% YoY during the review period.

Likewise, the import of Telecom down by 5.7% YoY and 6.1% MoM to clock in at $165.7m in the review month.

The data released by the central bank further shows that the textile import witnessed an increase of 63% YoY to $549.6m in March against the imports of $337.2m in the SPLY.

Under the textile group, the major portion of import was associated with raw cotton as it stood at $267.2m, observing an increase of 129% YoY and 11.5% MoM.

The import bill associated with the metal group clocked at $478.8m, witnessing a rise of 28.1% YoY and 2% MoM, due to a jump in the import of iron and steel reported at $233.4m in March.

Under the Transport Group, the country incurred import expenditure worth $196m during the review period, up by 9.5% MoM and 56.5% increase YoY.

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