ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) – Pakistan continues to experience a massive drop in imports during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the provisional figures show that the import bill had shrunk to $12.227 billion against $16.329bn recorded during the same period in 2022-23.
According to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), this 25.12 per cent decline as the petroleum group imports reduced by 28.03pc and that of food items by 32pc both in terms of quantity and value.
In dollar terms, the oil import bill dipped by 28.03pc to $3.50bn during July-Sept 2023-24 from $4.86bn in the same period last year. But massive rupee depreciation meant that the decline was relatively lower at 5.86pc or Rs1.02 trillion this year against Rs1.08tr last year.
The details reveal that the imports of petroleum products declined by 36.55pc in value and 26.03pc in quantity during the period under review.
At the same time, crude oil import decreased by 18.36pc in quantity while the value decreased by 30.10pc.
Read more: Pakistan sees huge decline in exports and imports in 2022-23
Similarly, liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports dipped by 7.36pc and that of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) declined 7.79pc in the months under review.
When it comes to food products, the value of imports stood at $1.85bn in the first quarter from $2.72bn recorded last year.
The import of palm oil declined 33.21pc followed by a 1.45pc dip in pulses and 25.91pc in soya bean oil. However, the import of tea surged by 22.34pc, and dry fruits over 51pc during the period under review.
Machinery imports plunged 6.29pc to $1.65bn mainly due to a decline in almost all categories of machinery excluding office machinery and mobile phones.
On the other hand, the total exports were down by 3.63pc during the first in quarter of 2023-24, to $6.91bn this year from $7.17bn over the last year. It was mainly due to the fact that the textile and clothing exports fell for the third consecutive month as the value of these items shipped abroad shrank 9.95pc to $4.12bn from $4.58bn in the corresponding period last year.