The imports of the overall machinery group witnessed an increase of 21.43 per cent during the first eight months of the current fiscal year (2023-24) compared to the corresponding period of the last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported. The total imports of the machinery group during July-February (2023-24) stood at $5,044.898 million against the imports of $4,154.465 million during the same period of the last year. The import of agriculture sector machinery and equipment surged by 96.58 per cent from $26.953 million to $52.983 million; office machinery including data processing equipment 44.23 per cent from $220.796 million to $318.448 million; electricity machinery and apparatus 48.45 per cent from $1,135.552 million to 1,685.707 million; telecom related equipment 102.44 per cent from $ 708.796 million to $ 1,434.853 million; mobile phone 156.43 per cent from $ 447.854 million to $ 1,148.438 million and other apparatus 9.76 per cent from $ 260.942 million to $ 286.415 million. However, during the period under review, the import of power-generating machinery declined by 28.42 per cent from $374.340 million to $267.951 million; textile machinery by 64 per cent from $ 267.767 million to $ 94.543 million; other equipment by 16.59 per cent from $ 1,358.221 million to $ 1,132.958 million; construction and mining machinery by 7.39 per cent from $ 62.041 million to $ 57.455 million. Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, the machinery group imports increased 64.36 per cent during February 2024 compared to the same month of last year, from $419.727 million to $689.879 million. On a month-on-month basis, the machinery imports into the country came down by 8.07 per cent during February 2024, compared to the imports of $ 750.444 million in January 2024, according to the PBS data.