ISLAMABAD: Imports of the petroleum group dipped nearly 8.11 per cent year-on-year to $7.70 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal year owing to the sharp reduction in demand as a result of the slowing down of the economy.

The surging prices also contributed to lower consumption of petroleum products. Also, the imports of machinery group posted over 42pc decline during July-November 2022-23.

Data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed the imports of petroleum products declined by 14.52pc in value during July-November and 36.09pc in quantity. Import of crude oil decreased by 18.48pc in quantity while the value increased by 10.55pc.

Similarly, LNG imports fell year-on-year by 17.38pc during 5MFY23. This would have translated into relatively lower power production through LNG — a replacement for furnace oil.

On the other hand, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) imports jumped 16.19pc.

The PBS is yet to release November data for local production, which witnessed a drop of 15.04pc in October from a year ago. The fall in imports of crude oil also translated into lower production of petroleum products by local refineries.

Machinery imports have been a major contributor to the widening trade deficit in the past many years, but they posted a fall of 42.35pc to $2.76bn in 5MFY23 against $4.78bn in 5MFY22 due to a sharp drop in arrivals of telecom equipment including mobile phones, which declined by 66.08pc year-on-year. The import of textile, office and power-generating machinery also shrank during the period.

Food imports grew by 1.63pc to $4.08bn during the period under review as palm oil buying jumped by 13pc and soybean oil by 234pc during the period under review. Pakistan imported 1.09 million tonnes of wheat and 612,019 tonnes of pulses in July-November 2022-23.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2022