ISLAMABAD, Sept 12: Imports of machinery of different categories surged by 27.69 per cent to $422.37 million during the first two months of 2002-03 over the same period of previous year, according to details of foreign trade statement available from the Federal Bureau of Statistics.
As a result, the share of machinery group in total import bill ($1.90 billion) increased to 22.22pc — a rise of over 3pc.
The rise in machinery imports is not unnecessarily a sign of increase in industrial activity. Any expectation in that direction would be belied by slowdown in imports of industrial raw materials and intermediate goods, experts pointed out.
Imports of electrical machinery and apparatus together with power generating machinery cost the country $73.35 million, accounting for 17.37pc of the bill for entire machinery group, as against 13pc during the same period of previous year, when their import had been worth $42 million.
As the FBS does not quantify the machinery, only the relevant authorities can determine whether 112 per cent rise in electrical machinery and apparatus was a case of dumping.
The imports of road motor vehicles continued their upward trend with an increase of 43.67pc over the previous year. The amount of foreign exchange spent by the country on these was $74.33 million.
For the first time in a long time, the import of office machines, including computers, etc., indicates some decline. The foreign exchange spent on this items amounted to 32.40 million, down 14.61pc from previous year.
Of surprise is also the 29.54pc rise in import of foodstuffs ($160.90 million) which accounted for 8.46pc for the total import bill, as against 7.18pc in the comparable period of previous year.
In this group, the import of 36,300 tons of wheat is rather puzzling in the face of official claims about a bumper crop.
Another factor in the rise in food import bill is the continued dependency on edible oil imports. Over 50pc of the food import bill is on account of import of palm oil alone (81.24 million) — albeit at an increased rate.
In the petroleum group — the No 1 claimant on foreign exchange resources though — the import at $500.98 million declined by 4.45pc over the previous year. In this group, particularly noteworthy is the slight let-up in import of crude oil.
In the two-month period under review, 1.272 million tons of crude oil, which is 1.67pc less than in the same period of previous year, was imported at a cost of $242.73 million. As percentage of import bill too, its claim on import bill was down from 14.07pc to 12.73pc.
In the textile group (37.66 million), which accounted for 1.98pc of import bill as against 1.53pc during July-August 2001, the imports of synthetic fibre as well as synthetic and artificial silk yarn remained on the upward swing.
But then the worn clothing with imports worth 6.54 million also continued its surge. Its import spurted by over 30pc over the previous year.
Another major import category is “agricultural and other chemicals group”.
Its share ($353.53 million) in import bill, although quite high at 18.60pc, was still lower as compared to previous year (19.44pc).
In this group, the country imported 178,760 tons of fertilizer, 9,723 tons of insecticides, 87,284 tons of plastic materials, 1,696 tons of medical products, etc. In this group, import of only plastic materials imports went up by 40.02pc.
Metal group imports declined by 11.43pc, while the miscellaneous group, including rubber crude, rubber tyres and tubes, paper & paperboard, increased by 21.13pc.
Others with import worth about $296 million accounted for 15.57pc of the total import bill, up from 14.88pc during the previous year.