ISLAMABAD, Aug 9: Imports of machinery group soared by over 50 per cent in July 2002 as compared to corresponding period of previous year mainly because of substantial rise in imports of textile machinery, roadmotor vehicles and power generating machinery.

Consequently, the share of this group in overall import bill ($926.06 million) jumped by about six percentage points to 24.41 per cent in the first month of the financial year 2002-03.

According to an analysis of the foreign trade data of the Federal Bureau of Statistics, the import bill of roadmotor vehicles totalled $33.51 million, 39.7 per cent more than in July 2001. The data was silent about the nature of vehicles imported.

These were surpassed only by the textile machinery with an import bill of $36.33 million — over 60 per cent more than in the corresponding month of previous year.

A category that assumes ever greater importance in terms of demand on foreign exchange resources is office equipment, mainly computers. Their imports during July 2002 increased by 5.99 per cent to 20.141 million as compared to the same month of previous year.

The import bill ($20.22 million) on account of power generating equipment — partly for the maintenance of the private electricity generating companies — shot up by 40.14 per cent.

The machinery group has been relegated to the second position. On top as the guzzler of foreign exchange is the petroleum group both in terms of amount of import bill ($253.79 million) and share in import bill (27.41 per cent). In July 2002, however, its import bill went up by only 2.25 per cent. Even with this slight increase, its share in import bill spurted by over 4 per cent.

The amount of crude petroleum oil imported during the month under review was 641,588 tons, denoting a decrease of 0.58 per cent from July 2001. In value, its import declined slightly by 0.83 per cent.

Agricultural and other chemicals group with imports amounting to $175.72 million constituted 18.98 per cent of the total import bill. The imports of items (fertilizers, insecticides, plastic materials, medicinal products, etc.) in this category surged by a little over 17 per cent.

The imports of the metals group ($39.35 million) declined by 19.65 per cent due mainly to 26.65 per cent drop in imports of iron and steel with an import bill of $31.66 million. The share of this group in total import bill was 4.25 per cent — down 6.19 per cent from the comparable month of previous year.

Metals group together with miscellaneous group mainly include items used in industry. The imports of the latter group (including rubber crude, rubber tyres & tubes, wood & cork, jute, paper & paperboard, etc.) registered an increased of 47.65 per cent, raising its share in import bill from 2.58 per cent in July 2001 to 3.25 per cent in the period under review.

FOOD GROUP: For the first time in a long time, import of wheat is shown as zero. In spite of this, the food group registered a steep rise of about 46 per cent in its import. Its import bill amounted to $69.6 million, raising its share in total import to 7.51 per cent — about 1.5 per cent more than in July 2001.