ISLAMABAD: According to figures provided by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday, the oil import bill saw a meager increase of more than 1% in the first half of the current fiscal year compared to the same period last year.
According to the data analysis, imports increased for all categories from July to December 2024–25 compared to the same time the previous year, including consumer durables, petroleum products, and raw materials.
Due mostly to an increase in the arrival of raw materials, textile items, agricultural products, machinery, and automobiles, the total import bill increased 6.52 percent year over year to $27.84 billion from July to December.
According to product-wise data, petroleum group imports increased by a meager 1 percent to $8.08 billion between July and December. Crude oil had the biggest increase, rising 3.03 percent in value. The overall amount of petroleum crude, however, increased by 16.15 percent to 4.98 million tonnes from 4.29 million tonnes the previous year.
In the first half of the current fiscal year, the cost of importing petroleum products decreased by 7% compared to the same period last year. On the other hand, the total amount imported increased by 8.38 percent, reaching 5.24 million tonnes.
However, during the period under review, imports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) climbed by 54.15 percent, while imports of LNG increased by 1.95 percent.
The import of machinery increased 15.69 percent to $4.17 billion from $3.61 billion the previous year, driven mostly by an increase in official, electrical, textile, and construction machinery. Construction machinery imports increased by 53.06 percent, electrical machinery and apparatus by 31.27 percent, and textile machinery by 53.90 percent.
The telecom group’s imports fell 1.33 percent year over year, mostly as a result of a drop in mobile phone imports during the reviewed months. Due mostly to higher tax rates, the import of mobile phones fell 7.46 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year compared to the same period last year. The first half of the current fiscal year saw a positive growth of 15.81 percent for the entire transport group compared to the same period last year. Vehicles with CKD/SKD and CBU contributed to the expansion of the transportation sector.
Fertilizer imports increased 39.83 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year compared to the same period last year. Medicinal products came in second at 16.75 percent and plastic materials at 6.51%. Nonetheless, throughout the reviewed months, there was a 29.95 percent decrease in the import of insecticide.
The import of iron and steel scrap was the primary cause of the 5.14 percent increase in metal imports from July to December.
