Islamabad November 17 2022: Pakistan’s petroleum import bill recorded a sharp decrease during the month of October 2022 when compared to previous month as demand slow down due to higher interest rates and flood destruction.
The decrease in imports of petroleum products will provide support to falling reserves and restore rupee parity against dollar.
There are 22 days cover for Petrol and 19 days covers for HSD in the country other than the imports and local refinery production for the remainder of the month, OGRA stated in its statement issued earlier on Thursday.
The oil import bill decreased by 26 percent to USD 1.188 billion in October 2022, the lowest since May 2021, compared with USD 1.56 billion in September 2021. The domestic users had to endure unprecedented increases in the prices of petroleum products.
Data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed that the import of petroleum products decreased by 24 percent in value and 27 percent in quantity.
Crude oil imports dip by 17 percent in both value and quantity to USD 372 million and 528 thousand tons respectively, in October 2022. Moreover, finished products imports decreased by 38 percent in value to USD 455 million and 33 percent in quantity to 697 thousand tons.
Imports of liquefied natural gas decreased by 13 percent in value to USD 297 million from USD 340 million a month ago. Liquefied petroleum gas imports increased by 48 percent to USD 64 million during the month of October.
The total import bill decreased by 19.79 percent to USD 2.3 billion in October 2022 as against USD 2.9 billion in the month of September 2022.
