ISLAMABAD: The oil import bill posted a paltry growth of over 1 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal year from a year ago, showed data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday.

The data analysis suggests that all the groups, including petroleum goods, consumer durables and raw materials, witnessed a growth in imports in July-December 2024-25 over the same period last year.

The overall import bill rose 6.52pc year-on-year to $27.84bn in July-December, mainly due to an increase in the arrival of raw materials, textile products, agriculture products, machinery and automobile sectors.

Product-wise data showed that petroleum group imports posted a paltry growth of 1pc to $8.08bn during the July-December period, with the most significant increase coming from crude oil, up 3.03pc in value. However, a 16.15pc increase was recorded in the total quantity of petroleum crude to 4.98 million tonnes from 4.29 m tonnes last year.

The import cost of petroleum products dipped 7pc during the first half of the current fiscal year from a year ago. In contrast, an 8.38pc increase was recorded in the total quantity imported, bringing the total up to 5.24m tonnes.

On the other hand, liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports increased by 1.95pc while the import of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) surged by 54.15pc during the period under review.

Machinery imports were up 15.69pc to $4.17bn from $3.61bn last year, led by a surge in textile, construction, official and electrical machinery. The import of textile machinery was up by 53.90pc, electrical machinery and apparatus by 31.27pc and construction machinery by 53.06pc.

The imports of the telecommunication group declined by 1.33pc year-on-year, mainly due to the decline in imports of mobile phones during the months under review. The import of mobile handsets declined by 7.46pc during the first half of the current fiscal from a year ago, mainly due to increased tax rates. The overall transport group also witnessed a positive growth of 15.81pc during the first half of the current fiscal year from a year ago. The transport sector’s growth was contributed by CKD/SKD and CBU vehicles.

In the agriculture sector, the import of fertilisers saw a growth of 39.83pc in the first half of the current fiscal year from a year ago, followed by medicinal products of 16.75pc and plastic materials of 6.51pc. However, the import of insecticide declines by 29.95pc during the months under review.

The import of metal growth saw a growth of 5.14pc during July-December mainly due to import of iron and steel scrap.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2025