January 11, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 26, 1422

ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: Pakistan’s export of raw cotton, synthetic fabrics, carpets and cutlery dropped drastically during first six months of the current fiscal as overall exports declined by 0.54 per cent.

Provisional statistics of the Federal Bureau of Statistics for July-December 2001, suggest that raw cotton exports declined by 94.34 per cent, synthetic fabrics by 20.28 per cent, carpets by 22.35 per cent and cutlery by 23.14 per cent over the same period last year.

Raw cotton exports in six months amounted to $4.9 million against $87.77 million last year, synthetic fabrics amounted to $209 million against $263 million, carpets stood at $103 million against $133 million and cutlery at $10.6 million against $13.8 million last year.

This loss of foreign exchange through fall in exports was partially offset by 88 per cent reduction in sugar imports and 26.70 per cent decrease in oil imports that stood at $1.349 billion against $1.840 billion during first half of the last year.

In terms of value, import of petroleum products declined by 36.47 per cent to $706 million during six months of current year against $1.11 billion same period last year.

Similarly, the import of crude oil declined by 11.8 per cent during first six months of current year and stood at $647 million against $729 million same period last year. The fall in value of oil imports is attributed to fall in international oil price and decline in consumption due to economic slowdown.

Positive side of the story is that imports of construction and mining machinery increased by 51.56 per cent and that of textile machinery by 41.4 per cent in six months this fiscal when compared with same period last year.

Textile machinery imports in six months amounted to $228 million against $163 million same period last year, while construction machinery imports stood at $52 million compared with $34 million last year.