Industrial uplift, consumer demand raise import bill to $48.539bln in 11 months

KARACHI: The country’s import bills swelled 20.60 percent to $48.539 billion during the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, as industrial uplifts and growing consumer demand ramped up imports of machinery, oil, transport and food products, official data showed on Tuesday. 

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) logged the import bill at $40.247 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier.  The major boost came from imports of machinery, which surged 39.97 percent to $10.883 billion in July-May 2016/17 over the corresponding period of 2015/16. Power generation machinery, electrical appliances and construction machinery together accounted for nearly half of the import bill under this head. 

Power machinery import increased 70.9 percent to $2.839 billion, while import of electrical appliances rose 26.83 percent to $2.118 billion and construction machinery import climbed 69.53 percent to $467.996 million.    China-funded infrastructure development has sparked a boom in construction as well as energy sectors. The government envisaged an addition of 10,000 megawatts of electricity into the grid in near-term due to more than $35 billion investment in power sector under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects. 

Oil bill, which has been benign over the last two years due to soft oil prices, was seen soaring in July-May of 2016/17. Imports of petroleum, oil and lubricant products rose 32.61 percent to $9.896 billion in the period under review as compared to the same period a year ago. Gas imports more than doubled to $1.150 billion owing mainly to import of liquefied natural gas. 

Likewise, transport imports also jumped 21.67 percent to $2.983 billion in July-May 2016/17. The main imports under this head were of buses, trucks, motor cars, bikes and auto parts and accessories, up 31.48 percent to $2.229 billion. Food imports increased 15.96 percent to $5.650 billion in the period under review. 

In May, machinery import amounted to $1.033 billion, depicting 47.40 percent surge over the same month last year, but remained flat as compared to April. Oil import soared 43.36 percent year-on-year (YoY) to $1.130 billion, while it was up 11.23 percent month-on-month (MoM), according to PBS. 

Analysts said the country needs to shed reliance on imports of consumer items to lessen burden on its foreign exchange reserves. 

Export sector is not performing up to the mark despite a hefty Rs180 billion exports package announced by the government to add three billion dollars to annual exports revenue by the next fiscal year-end. 

In July-May, textile sector, which accounts for more than 60 percent of the country’s exports, continued to show poor performance. 

Textile exports were down 1.98 percent to $11.234 billion, although value-added textile sector turned up a marginal recovery in the period under review. Bedwear exports crawled up 3.22 percent to $1.922 billion, while export of readymade garments rose 4.1 percent to $2.073 billion. Knitwear exports, however, fell 1.84 percent to $2.107 billion.  In May, textile exports dropped 12.24 percent YoY and dipped 8.47 percent MoM to $938.589 million. 

Food exports also decreased 7.54 percent to $3.426 billion in July-May 2016/17. Particularly, rice exports fell 14.75 percent to $1.463 billion in the period under review.  

In May, food exports, however, were up 3.64 percent YoY and down 9.92 percent to $ 353 million. The PBS data further showed that overall exports fell 3.13 percent to $18.540 billion.