ISLAMABAD, March 20: The country’s import bill of petroleum crude declined by 4.05 per cent to $2.361 billion during the July-February period of fiscal year 2006-07 as against $2.461 billion over the same months last year.
The negative growth in import of oil is being recorded for the last couple of months in the wake of substantial decrease in oil prices in international market this year in comparison with higher base period of the corresponding period last year.
On a monthly basis, the import of crude oil dipped by 10 per cent to $283.442 million in February 2007 as against $314.859 million in the same month last year.
This indicated that the decline in oil prices in international market has helped government save foreign exchange reserves, but this impact minimised due to increase in import of petroleum products during the period under review.
Official figures released here on Tuesday by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) indicated that import of petroleum products surged by 49.59 per cent to $2.338 billion during the first eight months of the current fiscal year as against $1.563 billion over the same period last year.
In absolute term, the import of oil—crude and products—witnessed a growth of 16.78 per cent to $4.7 billion during the July-February period of the fiscal year 2006-07 as against $4.024 billion over the same period last year.
The share of oil in total import bill reached 23.7 per cent during the July-February period of the current fiscal year as against 22.34 per cent share during the same period last year.
It indicates that the share of oil is till on higher side which like last year would be the prime mover of the trade deficit this year because of greater consumption. However, reduction in crude oil in international market in comparison with last year, would help further reduce the import bill of overall oil sector.
The second biggest component of the import bill in value was the machinery group. However, its import increased by 21.21 per cent in July-February 2006-07 to $4.211 billion as against $3.752 billion over the same months last year.
The import bill of machinery was mainly pushed by an increase of 47.50 per cent in power-generation machinery, 10.26 pc in office machines, 12.58pc in construction machinery and 13.19 pc in agriculture machinery.
The statistics showed that the more depressing aspect of the current trend in economy was the steady decline in import of textile machinery.
The import of textile machinery declined by more than 33.48 per cent during the July-February period of the current fiscal year over last year.
In the telecom sector, import of mobile phones increased by 35.79 per cent and other apparatus 12.59pc during the first eight months of the current fiscal year over the same months last year.
Food items’ import was up by 7.13pc to $1.924 billion during July-February of 2006-07 as against $1.796 billion in the corresponding months of the last year.
The import of milk products increased by 34.25 per cent, pulses 60.22 pc, palm oil 17.15 pc, sugar 11.35 pc, soyabean oil 104.03 pc, spices 2.93 pc, tea 2.37 pc and dry fruits 21.51pc.
However, import of wheat declined by 71.01 pc and all others food items 1.22 per cent during the period under review over last year.