ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: The country’s import bill of crude oil swelled by over 18 per cent during the first four months of this fiscal over the corresponding period of last year owing to highest ever increase in international prices of oil.

An absolute term the import bill of crude oil reached to $1.491 billion during the July-October as against $1.260 billion over the same period last year, showed official statistics released here by Federal Bureau of Statistics.

On monthly basis, the import of crude oil recorded a robust growth of 61pc to $472.663 million in October 2007 as against $293.552 million in October 2006.

This upsurge in the import bill was due to increase in international oil prices which have reached to all-time high above $96 per barrel, and if the rising trend continued in the upcoming months, the country’s import bill of crude oil was expected to cross $8bn-mark by end June 2008.

However, the import of products manufactured from crude oil dipped by 0.17pc to $1.368bn during the period under review over corresponding period last year.

The second biggest component of the import bill in value was the machinery group. However, its imports increased by 12.27pc to $2.195 billion as against $1.946 billion the same months of last year.

The import bill of machinery mainly pushed up following a rise of 29.30pc in construction machinery, 45.59pc in electrical machinery, 47.46pc in agriculture machinery and 16.07pc in other machinery.

The import of power generating machinery however fell by 9.40pc and office machine by 17.02pc.

In the telecom sector, the import of mobile phones decreased by 11.12pc during the period under review. However, other apparatus import witnessed a growth of 46.91pc during July-October 2007-08 over the same period last year.

The import of milk products increased by 21.57pc, palm oil by 39.55pc, soyabean oil 358.34pc, spices 1.40pc and dry fruits by 36.41pc. However, the import of wheat declined by 79.93pc, tea 15.54pc, pulses 27.58pc and sugar 96.67pc during July-Oct period.