The tea imports into the country witnessed an increase of 11.64 per cent during the first eight months of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
The tea imports during July-February (2021-22) were recorded at $423.466 million against the imports of $379.314 million during July-February (2020-21), according to data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
In terms of quantity, the tea imports increased by 3.62 per cent during the period under review as these went up from 171,469 metric tons last year to 177,671 metric tons during the current fiscal year, the data revealed.
The overall food imports increased by 20.24 per cent from $5,344.809 million last year to $6,426.614 million during the current fiscal year, according to the PBS data.
Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, the tea imports increased by 59.56 per cent during the month of February 2022 as compared to the same month of last year. The tea imports during February 2022 were recorded at $68.886 million against the imports of $43.172 million in February 2021.
The PBS report further said that on a month-on-month basis, the tea imports went up by 27.63 per cent in February 2022 as compared to the imports of $53.975 million in January 2022.
The overall merchandise imports during the first eight months of the current fiscal year went up by 55.08 per cent to $52.506 billion against the imports of US $ 33.858 billion during the same period of last fiscal year.
The exports also witnessed an increase of 25.88 per cent and were recorded at $20.547 billion during July-February (2021-22) against the exports of $16.323 billion recorded during July-February (2020-21).
Based on the data, the trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at $31.959 billion, showing an increase of 82.26 per cent over the deficit of $17.535 billion recorded during July-February (2020-21), the PBS data revealed.
On a year-on-year basis, the exports of the country increased by 35.78 per cent during February 2022 as compared to the exports of the same month of last year. The exports during February 2022 were recorded at $2.808 billion against the exports of $2.068 billion in February 2020, the data revealed.
The imports into the country increased from $4.601 billion in February 2021 to $5.903 billion in February 2022, showing a growth of 28.30 per cent.
