ISLAMABAD: The import of petroleum products declined by 24.56 percent during the first four months of the current fiscal year (FY2020-21) as compared to the corresponding period last year.
According to the latest data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the total imports of petroleum products stood at $3.153 billion as compared to the imports of $4.180 billion last year.
The import of petrol declined by 12.5 percent from $1.714 billion to $1.5 billion, while the imports of crude oil decreased by 26.13 percent from $1.186 billion last year to $0.876 billion.
The imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) decreased by 46.14 percent from $1.191 billion to $0.641 billion. However, there was an increase in growth of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as imports grew by 54.09 percent from $87.435 million to $134.726 million. The imports of all other petroleum group commodities decreased by 1.85 percent, the data revealed.
Petroleum imports decreased by 18.33 percent during October as compared to the same month last year. The petroleum imports during October 2020 were recorded at $825.272 million against the imports of $1010.531 million. On month-on-month basis, the petroleum imports into the country increased by 2.51 percent during October 2020 when compared to the imports of $805.086 in September 2020, the data revealed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the trade deficit witnessed reduction of 1.88 percent during the first four months of current fiscal year compared to the deficit of the corresponding period of last year. The deficit during the current year was recorded at $7.577 billion as compared to the deficit of $7.722 billion last year.
During the period under review, the country’s overall exports registered a positive growth of 0.33 percent by increasing from $7.529 billion last year to $7.554 billion during the current year. On the other hand, the imports decreased by 0.79 percent, from $15.251 billion last year to $15.131billion during the current year
