ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: Pakistan’s import bill of oil and eatables posted a growth of 3.58 per cent during the first two months of the current fiscal year over last year, suggested data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

In absolute terms, import bill of these commodities reached $3.61 billion in July-Aug this year as against $3.48 billion in the corresponding period of last year.

However, overall import bill slightly declined to $7.346 billion in July-Aug period this year as against $7.495 billion last year, a fall of 1.99 per cent from.

Experts say that the share of these two groups would increase in total imports in the months ahead following increase in oil prices in international market.

Statistics showed that oil import bill reached $2.792 billion in July-Aug this year as against $2.586 billion over previous year, showing an increase of 7.94 per cent.

The increase was mainly driven by import of petroleum products which reached $1.955 billion in the first two months of the current fiscal year as against $1.720bn over the same months last year, an increase of 13.61 per cent.

Import of crude oil dipped by 3.34 per cent to $836.915 million in the first two months this year as against $865.821 million in the previous year.

An increase of 5.70 per cent was witnessed in the quantity of crude oil during the year under review.

Import of motor vehicles increased by 15.47 per cent during the first two months of the current fiscal year over last year.

Import bill of whole transport group dropped by 3.11 per cent during the months under review over last year.

Import bill of eatables reached $818.011 million in the first two months this year as against $899.062 million over the previous year.

Within food group, major contribution came from pulses, edible oil and tea.

Telecom import surged by 25.84 per cent during July-Aug period this year over last year.