Oil, food imports rise to $5bn in July-August

Pakistan’s oil and eatables imports grew 11.4 per cent in the first two months of the current fiscal year to $5.08 billion from $4.56bn a year ago, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Thursday. In contrast, textile and clothing exports could only rise by 4.2pc year-on-year to $3.05bn due to slow demand and high cost of local production because of expensive energy. The oil import bill increased by over 7pc to $3.30bn in July-August from $3.08bn over the corresponding months of last year. Further breakup showed that the import of petroleum products went up by 7.8pc in value. Crude oil imports rose by 10.5pc in value during the period under review while those of liquefied natural gas declined by 3.37pc in value. Liquefied petroleum gas imports jumped by 41.50pc in value in FY23. The food import bill rose by over 21pc to $1.78bn in the two months under review from $1.47bn a year ago to bridge the local production gap. Within the food group, the major contribution came from wheat, sugar, edible oil, spices, tea and pulses.