Petroleum import bill falls by 20% YoY to $1.18bn in September: SBP

October 20, 2023 (MLN): The import bill of the petroleum group soared to $1.18 billion in September 2023, marking a decrease of 20.43% YoY compared to the import bill of $1.48bn recorded in September 2022, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.

Conversely, the imports of petroleum products inched up by 0.52% MoM compared to the bill of $1.17bn in August 2023.

It is pertinent to mention that the overall import bill has dropped by 18.55% YoY and 6.76% MoM compared to $4.89bn in September 2022 and $4.28bn in August 2023.

Cumulatively in 3MFY24, total imports marked a decline of 23.81% YoY to $12.46bn compared to imports of $16.36bn in 3MFY23.

Meanwhile, the share of petroleum products in the total import bill stood at 29.62% in September 2023.

In 3MF24, the import bill of petroleum products went significantly down by 49.62% to $3.06bn against $6.08bn recorded in the same period last year.

With regards to the transport sector, the import bill posted a decline of 11.41% YoY and 8.22% MoM to $125.73m in September 2023, against $141.93m in September 2022 and $136.99m in August 2023.

This decline is attributed to a fall in imports of road motor vehicles that stood at $121.5m compared to $104.44m in September 2023, depicting a decline of 23.59% YoY and 14.06% MoM.

Cumulatively in 3MFY24, imports from the transport sector marked an increase of 2.07% to $417.97m compared to imports of $409.48m in 3MFY23.

Going forward, the import of agricultural and other chemicals went down by 8.77% YoY to clock in at $713.8m.

Meanwhile, the same figures show an increase of 1.12% MoM compared to the figure of $705.87m reported in August 2023.

The country’s food imports went down by 44.08% YoY and 23.96% MoM to $459.87m in September 2023 as compared to $822.33m in September 2022 and $604.78m in August 2023.

Under the group, the imports of palm oil witnessed a decline of 48.18% YoY and 33.42% MoM during the review period.

In addition, the import of pulses fell by 9.54% YoY to clock in at $55.07m in the review month. Similarly, when compared to the previous month, the import bill for pulses went down by 24.86% MoM.

The import of machinery witnessed an increase of 3.56% YoY to $471.25m during the month under review against the imports of $455.04m in the SPLY.

Under the Machinery group, the major portion of import was associated with Electrical Machinery and apparatus as it stood at $135.43m, observing an increase of 36.78% YoY.

The import associated with the metal group stood at $324.91m, witnessing a decrease of 9.04% MoM, mainly due to a decrease in the import of iron and steel of 7.92% MoM to clock in at $148.74m in September 2023.

The imports of textile products went down by 19.4% YoY and by 28.76% MoM to $236.04m in September.

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