ISLAMABAD: The country’s oil import bill witnessed reduction of 15.13 percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
The country imported oil products worth $7553.912 million during July-March (2020-21) against the imports of $8900.622 million during July-March (2019-20), showing decline of 15.13 percent, according to latest data by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The commodities that contributed to the decline of oil import bill including petroleum products, the imports of which decreased by 13.04 percent, from $3964.658 million last year to $3447.646 million during the current fiscal year.
Likewise, the imports of petroleum cured decreased from $2452.595 million to $2023.362 million, a decline of 17.50 percent while the imports of natural gas (liquefied) went down by 22.61 percent, from $2237.255 million to $1732.518 million.
On the other hand, the imports of petroleum gas (liquefied) increased from $245.913 million to $351.254 million, showing growth of 42.84 percent while the imports of all other oil products decreased by 34.33 percent, from $0.201 million to 0.132 million.
Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the oil import bill increased by 65.83 percent to $1108.314 million in March 2021 when compared to the imports of $668.326 million in March 2020, the data revealed.
Likewise, on month-on-month basis, the imports during March 2021 witnessed an increase of 37.70 percent when compared to the imports of $804.850 million in February 2021.
It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s merchandize imports during the first three quarters increased by 13.57 percent by growing from $34.791 billion last year to $39.512 billion during current fiscal year.
On the other hand, the exports also increased by 7.12 percent, to $18.685 billion against the exports of $17.443 billion last year.
Based on the figures, the country’s trade deficit increased by 20.05 percent during the first three quarters as compared to the corresponding period of last year. The trade deficit during the period was recorded at $20.827 billion against the deficit of $17.348 billion last year, according to the PBS data.
