ISLAMABAD: The country’s oil import bill rose nearly 35 per cent year-on-year to $2.03 billion in the first two months of this fiscal year.

The share of oil in Pakistan’s total import bill in the July-Aug period was 21pc, which is putting more pressure on the country’s balance of payments.

Official figures compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) show that import of petroleum products went up 19pc in value. However, 58pc growth was recorded in terms of quantity of petroleum products.

Import of petroleum crude posted a growth of 67pc in value and 63pc in terms of quantity during the period under review.

In the petroleum group, the import bill of liquefied natural gas surged 59pc while that of liquefied petroleum gas recorded growth of 83pc during the period under review.

Machinery arrivals, the second-biggest component in the import bill, rose 6.2pc year-on-year to $1.96bn in the first two months of 2017-18.

However, power generating machinery and office machinery went down by 19pc and 16pc, respectively.

Textile machinery and construction machinery posted growth of 16pc and 4pc during the period under review.

A positive growth was witnessed in the import bill of the telecom sector because of an increase in the import of mobile phones and other apparatus. Import of mobile sets witnessed 40pc growth in just two months of the current fiscal year.

The imports of foodstuffs recorded a growth of 27pc during the July-August period of this fiscal year.

This increase has been attributed to massive imports of palm oil worth $360m followed by ‘other’ food items ($395m), pulses ($102.6m) and tea ($96m).

Imports of dry fruits and milk products also grew during the period under review.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2017