Petroleum import bill soars by 66% MoM to $1.17bn in August

September 15, 2023 (MLN): The import bill of the petroleum group soared to $1.17 billion in August 2023, marking a remarkable increase of 66.01% MoM compared to the import bill of $707.53 million recorded in July 2023, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.

Conversely, the imports of petroleum products fell significantly by 47.16% YoY compared to the bill of $2.22bn in the same period last year.

It is pertinent to mention that the overall import bill has dropped by 28% YoY compared to $5.96bn in August 2022, but the same figures mark an increase of 2.14% MoM compared to $4.2bn in July 2023.

Cumulatively in 2MFY24, imports marked a decline of 26% to $8.49bn compared to imports of $11.47bn in 2MFY23.

Meanwhile, the share of petroleum products in the total import bill of $4.29bn stood at 27.38% in August 2023.

In 2MF24, the import bill of petroleum products went significantly down by 59.04% to $1.88bn against $4.59bn recorded in the same period last year.

With regards to the transport sector, the import bill posted a decline of 6.81% YoY and 11.79% MoM to $136.99m in August 2023, against $147m in August 2022 and $155.25m in July 2023.

This decline is attributed to a fall in imports of road motor vehicles (build unit, CKD/SKD) that stood at $121.53m compared to $139.31m in July 2023, depicting a decline of 16.41% MoM.

Cumulatively in 2MFY24, imports from the transport sector marked an increase of 9.23% to $292.24m compared to imports of $267.56m in 2MFY23.

Similarly, the import of agricultural and other chemicals went down by 21.19% YoY and 13.03% MoM to clock in at $705.87m.

The country’s food imports went down by 28.94% YoY and 4.26% MoM to $604.78m in August 2023 as compared to $851.09m in August 2022 and $631.67m in July 2023.

Under the group, the imports of palm oil witnessed a decline of 28.64% YoY and 3.71% MoM during the review period.

In addition, the import of pulses fell by 7.53% YoY to clock in at $73.29m in the review month. However, when compared to the previous month, the import bill for pulses rose by 12.32% MoM.

Similarly, the import of machinery witnessed an increase of 17.63% MoM to $513.98m during the month under review against the imports of $436.96m in the previous month.

Under the Machinery group, the major portion of import was associated with Electrical Machinery and apparatus as it stood at $155m, observing an increase of 33.42% MoM.

The import associated with the metal group stood at $350.03m, witnessing an increase of 5.87% MoM, mainly due to a significant increase in the import of iron and steel crap of 33.20% MoM to clock in at $145.89m in August 2023.

The imports of textile products went down by 8.03% YoY and by 5.10% MoM to $333.34m in August.

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