ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s non-oil imports have increased considerably during July-May 2015-16 with a huge rise of 132.87 per cent in imports of raw cotton.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) provisional data on import of selected commodities, imports of textile group increased by 26 per cent during July-May 2015-16 to $2.92 billion from $2.321 billion a year ago.

Raw cotton imports increased by 132.87 per cent to $717 million from $307 million for the same period of last fiscal year, worn clothing by 25.41 per cent to $142 million from $113.87 million and other textile items imports increased by 30.38 per cent to $1.045 billion from $801 million during the period under review.

Food group imports have increased by 7.10 per cent to $ 4.87 billion in July-May 2015-16 from $4.54 billion due to increase in imports of dry fruits, tea, spices, soybean oil, and sugar as well as pulses and other food items.

Within food group, dry fruits and nuts imports increased by 43.20 per cent to $151 million from $105 million, soybean oil imports increased by 297.33 per cent to $174 .056 million from $45.885 million during the period under review.

Pulses imports increased by 44.19 per cent during July-May 2015-16 to $566 million from $366.293 from the corresponding period of last fiscal year. Sugar as well as other food items imports also witnessed an increase of 0.24 per cent and 2.39 per cent respectively during the period under review.

Transport group imports increased by 3.27 per cent during eleven months of the current fiscal year to $2.464 billion as compared to $2.386 billion for the same period of last fiscal year.

Within transport group import of road motor vehicles (build uni) increased by 21.53 per cent to $ 1.74 billion from $1.43 billion, buses, trucks and other heavy vehicles by 63.52 per cent to $ 188.842 million as opposed to $115.485 million a year ago, motor cars by 20.19 percent to $ 298.451 million from $ 248.312 million.

Machinery group imports increased by 16.77 per cent to $7.796 billion in current fiscal year from $6.676 billion a year earlier and within machinery group, imports of power generation machinery increased by 38.59 per cent, textile machinery by 1.89 per cent, construction and mining by 17.70 per cent, electrical machinery and appliance by 57.45 per cent etc.

Metal and miscellaneous group imports have increased by 11.31 and 6.1 per cent respectively during the current fiscal year as compared to the same period of last fiscal year and all other items by 10.45 per cent.