Medicinal imports rise by 3.54 pct in 10 months

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan imported medicinal products worth $929.355 million during the first 10 months of current fiscal year, showing positive growth of 3.54 percent, as compared to the import of $897.564 million during the corresponding period of last year.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday, Pakistan imported 19,183 metric tons of medicinal products during July-April (2018-2019) against imports of 18,441 metric tons during July-April (2017-2018), showing increase of 4.02 percent in term of quantity.

On year-on year basis, the imports of medicinal products witnessed negative growth of 19.41 percent in April 2019, when compared to the imports of the same month of last year. The medicinal imports during April were recorded at $102.009 million against the imports of $126.570 million in April 2018.

Meanwhile, on month-on-month basis, the imports of medicinal products witnessed positive growth of 21.45 percent during April 2019, when compared to the imports of $83.993 million during March 2018, according to the data.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s merchandize trade deficit plunged by 12.82 percent during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The trade deficit contracted by $3.867 billion to $26.302 billion during July-April (2018-19) against the deficit of $30.169 billion recorded during July-April (2017-18).

The exports during the period under review witnessed nominal decrease of 0.12% by falling from $19.191 billion during last year to $19.169 billion during the ongoing fiscal year.

On the other hand, the imports declined by 7.88% to $45.471 billion during the period under review from $49.360 billion last year, the data revealed.