The petroleum group imports increased to a record high of $17.033 billion during the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2021-22 as compared to $8.697 billion during the same period of the last fiscal year, showing a growth of 95.84 percent.
According to the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the petroleum group imports registered a 19.44 percent growth in April 2022 and remained $2.223 billion when compared to $1.861 billion in March 2022, and registered a 94.38 percent growth on a year-on-year basis in April 2022 when compared to $1.143 billion during the same month of the last year.
The country’s imports during July-April 2021-22 totalled $65.537 billion as against $44.731 billion during the corresponding period of last year, showing an increase of 46.51 percent. The overall import bill in April remained $6.679 billion as compared to $6.407 billion in March 2022, showing an increase of 4.25 percent. On a year-on-year basis, the imports in April surged by 27.41 percent as compared to $5.242 million in April 2021.
Construction and mining machinery imports witnessed a growth of 33.19 percent during July-April 2021-22 and remained at $151.852 million compared to $114.012 million during July-April 2020-21.
The country’s trade deficit widened by 64.90 percent from $23.826 billion in July-April 2020-21 to $39.290 billion in July-April 2021-22.
Main commodities of imports during April, 2022 were petroleum products (Rs232,765 million), petroleum crude (Rs98,427 million), natural gas liquified (Rs71,072 million), palm oil (Rs67,840 million), plastic materials (Rs51,678 million), mobile phone (Rs39,460 million), raw cotton (Rs38,533 million), iron & steel (Rs35,157 million), iron & steel scrap (Rs32,751 million) and electrical machinery & apparatus (Rs28,572 million).
Based on the provisional figures of imports and exports the balance of trade in April 2022 was $3.782 billion. The balance of trade figures cumulative from July-April 2021–22 remained $39.29 billion. However, due to $3.1 billion remittance, the current account deficit hovered around $682 million during April 2022.
