ISLAMABAD: Overall imports of petroleum witnessed 3.81 percent increase during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, as compared to the corresponding period of last year, official data showed.
During the period under review, the total imports of petroleum group stood at $10.614 billion against imports of $10.224 billion of the year 2017-18, according to the data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The products that contributed in inflated petroleum import bill included crude oil. Crude imports surged by 15.19 percent, as $3,379.035 million were spent on buying the commodity from the international markets in the first three quarters of the year 2018-19.
The government spent $2,933.540 million during the same period of the previous year.
The import of liquefied natural gas also witnessed a sharp
increase of 49.3 percent to $2,404.628 million during the period under review against import of $1,610.628 million in the same period of last year.
On the other hand, the petroleum products that witnessed decline in imports during the period under review included petroleum products, which witnessed negative growth of 15.33 percent by falling from $5,459.809 last year to $4,622.989 million.
Liquefied petroleum gas import decreased by 5.88 percent to $207.140 million during the current year, from $220.079 million.
The imports of all other petroleum group products, however, increased by 23.12 percent to $0.213 million from US $ 0.173 million last year.
Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the imports of petroleum products witnessed a decrease of 17.69 percent in March 2019 when compared to the imports of the same month of last year.
The petroleum group imports during March 2019 were recorded at $995.427 million against the imports of $1,209.291 million last year.
On month-on-month basis, the petroleum group imports however increased by 6.94 percent in March when compared to the imports of $930.819 million in February 2019, the data revealed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s merchandise trade deficit plunged by 13.02 percent during July-March (2018-19) as the deficit contracted by over $3.544 billion to $23.672 billion in the period under review against the deficit of $27.216 billion recorded during the same period of the previous year.
Exports during the period under review witnessed an increase of 0.11 percent to $17.08 billion from $17.064 billion during July-March (2017-18).
On the other hand, the imports declined by 7.96 percent to $40.755 billion from $44.281 billion recorded during first nine months of the current fiscal year.
On year-on-year basis, the imports into the country witnessed negative growth of 20.88 percent during March 2019 when compared to the imports of the same month of last year.
The imports during March 2019 were recorded at $4.155 billion against the imports of $5.25 billion in March 2018.