ISLAMABAD, July 14: Growth in the imports of six major groups raised the import bill by 26.6 per cent to $15.472 billion during the financial year 2003-04 from $12.2 billion in the previous year.
Official figures compiled by the ministry of commerce showed that the import machinery group increased by 39.3 per cent, chemical group by 26.2 per cent, metal group by 30.5 per cent, textile group by 15.1 per cent, petroleum group by three per cent and miscellaneous group by 20.7 per cent. The import of food group increased by four per cent during the period under review over the same period last year.
The statistics further revealed that the import unit value of major items also increased in the range of 0.2 per cent to 28.4 per cent during the year 2003-04 over the previous year, which resulted in increasing the import bill.
Pakistan spent $759.3 million more on the imports of major items due to higher import prices prevailing in the international market. Had the unit value remained on the previous year level, imports would have been $14.713 billion during the year under review, resulting in an increase of 20.4 per cent instead of the current 26.6 per cent.
Further analysis showed that the increase in imports of machinery group was attributed to a significant rise in the import of aircraft, ships and boats, which increased to $780.6 million during the year 2003-04 from $134.1 million over the corresponding year, an increase of 482.1 per cent.
The import of metal group significantly increased by 30.5 per cent to $662.1 million during the year 2003-04 from $507.4 million during the same period of the previous year.
The import of capital goods surged by 28.8 per cent and raw materials for capital goods by 38 per cent during the period under review. The import of petroleum crude increased by 29.1 per cent because of rise in both quantity and unit value by 16.1 per cent and 11.2 per cent, respectively.
However, the import of petroleum products declined by 17.9 per cent owing to a decline in quantity by 36 per cent, despite an increase in the import unit value by 28.4 per cent.
In the food group, import of tea increased by 14 per cent, spices 80.9 per cent, palm oil 12.8 per cent and sugar by 23.1 per cent during the year 2003-04 over the same period of the previous year.
A decline has been observed in the import of milk cream including milk food for infants (7.9 per cent), wheat (17.8 per cent), dry fruit (29.8 per cent), soyabean oil (4.2 per cent) and pulses (36.2 per cent).
The statistics showed that the imports, excluding petroleum and food groups, amounted to $11.281 billion as against $8.175 billion during the corresponding year, showing an increase of 38 per cent.
