Daily Times

Due to a slump in business activities, the import bill recorded a decrease of $1.28 billion in July. The import of petroleum products, food and machinery saw a slump, while those of some other goods, including mobile phones, vehicles, palm oil and gas, increased.

In the first month of the current financial year, the volume of imports was recorded at $3.70 billion.

The first month of the fiscal year 2023-24 saw a 25.62% decrease in the import bill, as the volume of imported products dipped from $4.98 billion to $3.70 billion.

A report said that there was a decrease in the imports of petroleum, food, machinery, textiles, agricultural goods, iron, steel, cotton, wheat, and textile machinery.On the other hand, the imports of mobile phones, vehicles, natural gas, palm oil and plastic materials increased as well as those of pulses and surgical instruments. According to statistics, the import bill of petroleum fell by 37% as compared to July 2022 – to $790 million. The bill during this period last year was $1.43 billion, while in June 2023 it was $1.63 billion.

The food import bill fell by 18% to $624.8 million, the report said, adding that the bill in July 2022 was $763.1 million, and $556.7 million in June 2023. The imports of machinery decreased by 21.36% to $493.4 million, according to the bureau of statistics.

The imports of mobile phones however saw an increase of 75.59% with $60.81 million, as an amount of over Rs19 billion was spent on their import. The import of motor cars increased by 34.17% with over $70 million spent for the purpose. The textiles saw a dip of 20.86% decrease in import, with the volume of their import bill was $244.7 million.