ISLAMABAD: Petroleum group imports witnessed a negative growth of 1.53 per cent during the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2023-24 and remained $13.761 billion compared to $13.974 billion during the same period of last fiscal year, says the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The data of exports and imports released by the PBS revealed that petroleum group imports in April 2024 remained at $1.676 billion compared to $1.506 billion in March and registered 11.34 per cent growth while on a year-on-year (YoY) basis; it registered 88.09 per cent growth when compared to $891.468 million in April 2023.

Petroleum products imports witnessed 14.09 per cent negative growth during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year and remained at $ 5.283 billion compared to $6.149 billion during the same period of the last fiscal year.

On MoM basis, it remained $673.314 million in April 2024 compared to $487.837 million in March 2024 and registered 115.40 per cent growth when compared to 312.588 million dollars in April 2023.

The imports in April 2024 were $4.865 billion (provisional) as compared to $4.855 million in March 2024 showing an increase of 0.21 per cent over March 2024, and increased by 63.20 per cent as compared to $2,981 million in April 2023.

The imports during July–April, 2023-2024 totalled $44.918 billion (provisional) as against $46.706 billion during the corresponding period of last year showing a decrease of 3.83 per cent.

The main commodities of imports during April 2024 were petroleum products (Rs187,277 million), petroleum crude (Rs161,733 million), electric machinery and apparatus (Rs135,222 million), natural gas, liquefied (Rs95,650 million), palm oil (Rs60,107 million), iron and steel (Rs53,175 million), plastic materials (Rs47,458 million), mobile phone (Rs44,890 million), iron and steel scrap (Rs23,099 million), and medicinal products (Rs22,511 million).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024