Pakistan’s imports of palm oil imports increased by 34.83 percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year against the imports of the same period of last year.
The imports during July-March (2020-21) were recorded at $1860.935 million against the imports of $1380.245 million during July-March (2019-20), showing an increase of 34.86 percent, according to the latest data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
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In terms of quantity, Pakistan had imported 2,443,293 metric tons of palm oil during the period under review as compared to the imports of 2,277,022 metric tons last year, showing an increase of 7.3 percent. On the other hand, the imports of soybean oil had also increased by 6.72 percent, going up from $45.286 million last year to $48.327 during the current fiscal year.
In terms of quantity, the soybean oil imports had increased from 65,943 metric tons to 72,776 metric tons, showing an increase of 10.36 percent. Meanwhile, palm oil imports had increased by 39.63 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in March 2021 as compared to the imports of February 2020.
The PBS data revealed that the palm oil imports in March 2021 were recorded at $275.550 million against the imports of $197.346 million in March 2020. On a month-on-month basis, palm oil imports had increased by 26.66 percent in March 2021 as compared to imports of $217.551 million in February 2021. However, the soybean imports had a 100 percent decrease on a YoY basis as there had been no imports during the month against the imports of $0.327 million in March 2020.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan’s merchandise exports had increased by 7.12 percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year (2020-21) as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
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Pakistan’s exports during July-March (2020-21) were recorded at $18.685 billion against the exports of $17.443 billion during July-March (2019-20), according to the latest PBS data. The imports during the period under review had also increased by 13.57 percent by growing from $34.791 billion last year to $39.512 billion during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year.
Based on these figures, Pakistan’s trade deficit had increased by 20.05 percent during the first three quarters as compared to the corresponding period of last year. The trade deficit during the period was recorded at $20.827 billion against the deficit of $17.348 billion last year, according to the PBS data.
