ISLAMABAD: Petroleum group imports witnessed a negative growth of 27.03 percent during the fiscal year 2022-23 and remained $17.014 billion compared to $23.318 billion during the fiscal year 2021-22, says the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The data of exports and imports released by the PBS revealed that petroleum group imports in June 2023 remained at $1.632 billion compared to $1.407 billion in May and registered 15.95 percent growth. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis when compared to $3.639 billion in June 2022, the petroleum group registered 55.15 percent negative growth.

Petroleum products imports witnessed 36.80 percent negative growth during the fiscal year 2022-23 and remained at $7.628 billion compared to $12.069 billion during the same period of 2021-22. On a MoM basis, it remained $880.250 million in June 2023 compared to $599.080 million in May 2023 and registered 46.93 percent growth. On YoY, it registered 57 percent negative growth when compared to $2.046 billion in June 2022.

The overall imports during July-June, 2022-23 totaled $55.330 billion (provisional) as against $80.136 billion during the corresponding period of last year showing a decrease of 30.95 percent.

The imports in June 2023 were $4.219 billion (provisional) as compared to $4.328 billion in May 2023 showing a decrease of 2.52 percent and by 46.30 percent as compared to $7.857 billion in June 2022.

Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed by 42.93 percent to $27.595 billion during the fiscal year 2022-23 (July-June) as compared to $48.354 billion during the same period of 2021-22.

Machinery group imports registered 4.82 percent negative growth during the fiscal year 2022-23 and remained $5.807 billion compared to $10.920 billion.

Food group imports witnessed 0.88 percent negative growth during the period under review and stood at $8.936 billion compared to $9.016 billion during the same period of last year.

Main commodities of imports during June 2023 were petroleum products (Rs252,266 million), petroleum crude (Rs121,700 million), natural gas, liquified (Rs83,661 million), palm oil (Rs71,423 million), plastic materials (Rs53,408 million), iron and steel (Rs47,081 million), electric machinery and apparatus (Rs33,672 million), medicinal products (Rs27,192 million), iron and steel scrap (Rs17,361 million), and pulses (leguminous vegetables) (Rs16,770 million).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023