ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s oil and food import bill rose nearly 26 per cent year-on-year to $11.6 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year owing to an increase in global prices of crude and grains.

The amount comes to slightly above one third of the total import goods import bill for the period. Two thirds of this is due to oil imports.

The trade deficit is widening as the overall import bill of the country has been on the rise since the start of 2017-18.

Liquefied natural gas imports rose to $1.2bn in the July-Jan period

Official figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Thursday showed that the petroleum imports increased 35.6pc year-on-year to $7.9bn in July-Jan.

A 57pc growth was recorded in import of crude oil year-on-year to $2.2bn. But in terms of quantity, a growth of 27pc was posted year-on-year to 5.8 million tonnes, indicating that a large share of the increase is on account of higher prices.

Imports of petroleum products went up 16.4pc to $4.4bn in the seven-month period. The petroleum products recorded a nearly 7pc growth in quantity year-on-year to 10m tonnes.

In the petroleum group, the import bill of liquefied natural gas (LNG) surged 87.6pc year-on-year to $1.2bn. While that of petroleum gas liquefied recorded growth of 34.3pc year-on-year to $0.189m.

The second-biggest component in the import bill was food commodities whose import rose 9.7pc year-on-year to $3.7bn in the first seven months of this fiscal year. The increase is due mainly to massive imports of palm oil registering a 19pc year-on-year rise to $1.2bn in value. In terms of quantity, an increase of 14.7pc year-on-year was also recorded to 1.66m tonnes.

The second-biggest single product in food import bill is tea, which went up by 11pc year-on-year to $333.9m. However, a 3.4pc decline was recorded in terms of quantity. The import of ‘other’ food items went up 17pc year-on-year to $1.5bn.

The import of milk products went up by 9.9pc to $152.3m year-on-year. The import of soyabean oil went up 82pc to $105.7m. Import of spices rose 22.5pc year-on-year to $93m and a rise of 4.9pc in import of sugar was recorded year-on-year to $0.34m.

The import of pulses dropped by 35.7pc year-on-year to $315.4m due to better yield in domestic market. The import of dry fruits fell 8.5pc year-on-year to $91.3m owing to regulatory duties imposed on imports of various types of dry fruits especially from Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2018