ISLAMABAD: Petroleum group imports witnessed a negative growth of 13.78 per cent during the first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year and stood at $8.005 billion when compared to $9.285 billion during the same period of last fiscal year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.

The data of exports and imports released by PBS revealed that petroleum group imports decreased by 2.11 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis and stood at $1.55 billion in December 2023 when compared to $1.585 billion during December 2022.

On a month-on-month basis, it registered 8.91 per cent growth when compared to $1.424 million in November 2023.

Petroleum products imports witnessed 24 per cent negative growth during July-December 2023-24 and remained at $3.193 billion compared to $4.202 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.

On a MoM basis, it registered 6.65 per cent growth and stood at $532.615 million in December 2023 when compared to $499.401 million in November 2023.

On a YoY basis, petroleum products registered 18.04 per cent negative growth when compared to $649.862 million in December 2022.

The overall imports during July-December of fiscal year 2023-24 totalled $26.266 billion (provisional) as against $31.209 billion during the corresponding period of last year showing a decrease of 15.84 per cent.

The imports in December 2023 were $ 4,650 million (provisional) as compared to $ 4.539 billion in November, 2023, showing an increase of 2.45 per cent but decreased by 9.60 per cent as compared to $ 5,144 million in December, 2022.

The Main commodities of imports during December 2023 were Petroleum crude (Rs158,260 million), petroleum products (Rs150,888 million), natural gas, liquefied (Rs109,516 million), electric machinery and apparatus (Rs63,667 million), palm oil (Rs60,316 million), plastic materials (Rs52,218 million), mobile phones (Rs49,887 million), iron and steel (Rs41,654 million), iron and steel scrap (Rs30,426 million) and motor cars (ckd/skd) (Rs29,543 million).—TAHIR AMIN