The country’s petroleum group imports witnessed a negative growth of 17.96 percent during the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23) and stood at $13.974 billion compared to $17.033 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 2023 stood at $891.468 million, registering a 59.91 percent negative growth on a year-on-year (YoY) basis compared to $2.223 billion in April 2022.

Petroleum products witnessed 28.07 percent negative growth during the first 10 months of FY23 and stood at $6.149 billion compared to $8.549 billion during the same period of the last fiscal year. On MoM basis, the imports stood at $312.588 million in April 2023 compared to $484.024 million in March 2023 and registered 35.42 percent negative growth.

The total imports during July- April FY23 stood at $46.882 billion (provisional) against $65,519 billion during the corresponding period of last year showing a decrease of 28.45 percent. The imports in April 2023 were $2.997 billion (provisional) compared to $3.816 billion in March 2023 showing a decrease of 21.46 percent and 55.01 percent as compared to $6.661 billion in April 2022.

The main commodities of imports during April 2023 were petroleum products (Rs. 89,071 million), petroleum crude (Rs. 78,928 million), natural gas, liquified (Rs. 73,700 million), palm oil (Rs. 51,310 million), Plastic materials (Rs. 36,918 million), raw cotton (Rs. 33,683 million), electric machinery and apparatus (Rs. 33,358 million), iron and steel (Rs. 26,249 million), medicinal products (Rs. 20,304 million), and pulses (leguminous vegetables) (Rs. 17,304 million).

Source: Pro Pakistani