ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s oil import bill declined by 21.30 per cent to $11.695 billion in 2014-15 from $14.860bn in the preceding year, suggested Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data on Wednesday.

The import of petroleum crude was down by 29.04pc to $4.098bn during the year from $5.775bn in 2013-14. And import of petroleum products was also down by 16.38pc to $7.596bn from $9.084bn in the preceding year.

Despite the decrease in petroleum prices during the year under review, its imports did not increase. However, in terms of quantity the petroleum crude imports declined by 6.92pc over the preceding year.

Savings from declining oil imports were paid off by increase in imports bill of machinery, food, transport, agriculture, chemicals and textile groups.

However, there was a dip in imports of textile machinery by 25.06pc over the preceding year, which suggested that the sector was not expanding.

Import of all types of machineries showed a growth of 14.9pc in 2014-15 over the preceding year.

Power generators import bill grew by 26.95pc, electrical machinery 7.86pc and office machinery by 83.11pc during the year under review.

Energy shortfall in the country was the main reason behind the constant increase in imports of power machines.

The telecom sector import also increased by 2.35pc over the preceding year, mainly due to the rapid development of 3G/4G infrastructure in the country.

Import of mobile handsets surged by 18.19pc to $722.618 million in 2014-15 from $611.4m in the preceding year, thanks to the rising demand for smartphones.

Import of construction and mining machinery witnessed a nominal growth of 3.6pc over the preceding year.

Transport group import bill remained higher by 21.7pc to $2.694bn in 2014-15 from $2.214bn in 2013-14.

Imports of aircraft, boats and ships decreased by 0.61pc over the preceding year.

Textile group imports, mainly raw materials, also declined by 4.35pc to $2.560bn from $2.677bn in 2013-14.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2015

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