ISLAMABAD, Sep 16 (ABC):The imports of overall petroleum group witnessed an increase of 6.97 percent during the first two months of the current fiscal year (2022-23) as compared to the corresponding period of the last year. During the period under review, the total imports of the petroleum group during July-August (2022-23) stood at $3,302.159 million, as against the imports of $3,087.113 million last year, according to the latest data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Among petroleum commodities, the import of petroleum products rose by 7.75 percent, from $1,539.417 million last year to $1,658.647 million during the period under review. The imports of petroleum crud also increased by 10.46 percent, from $818.884 million last year to $904,522 million during July-August (2022-23) whereas the imports of liquefied petroleum gas surged by 41.50 percent from $77.356 million to $109.460 million.
The imports of all other petroleum group commodities (except LNG) increased by 79.07 percent, from $0.043 million to $0.077 million. The only petroleum commodity that witnessed negative growth in trade was Liquified Natural Gas, the imports of which declined by 3.37 percent, from $651.413 million to $629.453 million . Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the petroleum group imports witnessed an increase 6.21 percent during the month of August 2022 as compared to the same month of last year.
The petroleum imports during August 2022 were recorded at $1,865.979 million against the imports of $1,756.826 million during August 2021. On month-on-month basis, the petroleum imports into the country also increased by 29.93 percent during August 2022 when compared to the imports of $1,436,180 million in July 2022, the data revealed. It is pertinent to mention here that overall merchandize imports into the country decreased by 9.25 percent during the first two months of the current fiscal year by going down from $12.152 billion last year to $11.028 billion in July-August (2022-23).
Exports from the country witnessed an increase of 3.75 percent and were recorded at $4.759 billion against the exports of $4.587 billion last year. Based on the data, the trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at $6.269 billion, showing a decrease of 17.13 percent over the deficit of $7.565 billion recorded during last year, the PBS data revealed.