ISLAMABAD: Petro-leum group imports witnessed a negative growth of 17.96 percent during the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 and remained $ 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 remained $ 891.468 million compared to $ 1.206 billion in March and registered 59.91 percent negative growth on a year-on-year (YoY) basis when compared to $ 2.223 billion in April 2022. Petroleum products imports witnessed 28.07 percent negative growth during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year and remained $ 6.149 billion compared to $ 8.549 billion during the same period of the last fiscal year.

On MoM basis, it remained $ 312.588 million in April 2023 compared to $ 484.024 million in March 2023 and registered 35.42 percent negative growth.

The overall imports during July- April 2022-2023 FY 2022-23 totaled $ 46,882 million (provisional) as against $ 65,519 million during the corresponding period of last year showing a decrease of 28.45 percent. The imports in April 2023 were $ 2,997 million (provisional) as compared to $ 3,816 million in March 2023 showing a decrease of 21.46 percent and by 55.01 percent as compared to $ 6,661 million in April 2022.

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).—TAHIR AMIN