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ISLAMABAD, Dec 22: The country’s import bill of petroleum products increased by 31.38 per cent to $3.391 billion during the period of July-November as against $2.581 billion in the corresponding months last year.
The share of oil in the total import bill reached 28 per cent as against 23 per cent in the corresponding period last year, indicating that share of oil import increased while oil prices declined in the international market.
Official figures released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Friday indicated that the import of crude oil increased by 4.57 per cent to $1.615 billion during the period under review as against $1.544 billion over the same months of the last year. The growth in import of petroleum products was more than 71 per cent.
Like last year, import bill of oil may be the prime mover of the trade deficit this year because of greater consumption.
Statistics showed that the more depressing aspect of the current trend in economy was steady decline in import of overall machinery, particularly the textile machinery.
The textile machinery declined by more than 36 per cent during the July-Nov period of 2006 as against the same period last year.
It showed that textile tycoons have stopped import of machinery for modernizing their units to enhance the quality of their products and reduce the cost of doing business for making it competitive with those coming from India and China in the international market.
MACHINERY: The second biggest component of the import bill in value was the machinery group. However, it increased by six per cent in July-November 2006 to $2.460 billion as against $2.321 billion over the same months of the last year.
The import bill of machinery was mainly pushed by an increase of 24.18 per cent in power generating machinery, office machines 13.05 pc and agriculture machinery 2.63 pc.
In the telecom sector, the import of mobile phones increased by 41.48 per cent and other apparatuses 10.44 per cent during the five months of the current fiscal year over the same months of the last year.
Food items import declined by 3.47 per cent to $1.119 billion during the July-November period as against $1.160 billion in the corresponding months of the last year.
The import of milk products increased by 16.42 per cent, pulses 44.95pc, palm oil 2pc, soyabean oil 137.08 pc, spices 13.06 pc and tea 1.95 pc.
However, import of wheat declined by 3.24 pc, followed by dry fruits 21.19 pc, sugar 12.42 pc and all others food items 14.60 per cent during the period under review over the last year.
