02/05/2008 (The Daily Times, Pakistan), Islamabad - Import of five commodities POL products, wheat, palm oil, raw cotton and fertilizer at higher value added $3.074 billion in trade deficit of the country during July-March period of this fiscal year, stats a finance ministry report submitted to the parliament.

Crude oil and POL products imports were budgeted at $65 per barrel for full fiscal year, however, the increase its value in international market averaged $80.13 per barrel during July-March 2007-08 for the country.

Trade deficit during July-March 2007-08 provisionally amounted to $10.811 billion fob basis as compared to trade deficit of $7.446 billion in comparable period of the last fiscal year 2006-07, reflecting a deterioration of over 45.2 percent in normal dollar terms.

On the other hand, exports recorded a growth of 14 percent fob terms in the first nine months of current fiscal year that partly helped in blunting the impact of high growth in imports payments on trade deficit.

Import payments during July-March period of current fiscal recorded a growth of 27.7 percent (fob) in normal dollar terms compared with the same period of last fiscal year. In absolute terms, the incremental value of trade deficit at $3.36 billion during July-March 2007-08 over the same period of last fiscal year is more than fully explained by higher imports payments.

Crude oil price was budgeted at $65 per barrel which averaged at $80.13 per barrel during July-March period 2007-08 vis-à-vis $59.74 per barrel in same period of last fiscal year. Similarly, the palm oil is estimated at $839 per metric ton during first nine months of 2007-08 compared with an average unit price of $503 per metric ton in comparable period of last fiscal year.

Crude oil and POL Products: Comparison prepared at Ministry of Finance reveals that crude and POL products imports amounted to $6.853 billion in July-March 2007-08 as compared with $5.414 billion in same period last fiscal year indicating an increased spending of $1.439 billion.

Palm Oil: Value of palm oil imports jumped to $1.054 billion in first nine months of this fiscal year as compared to $617 million in same period last fiscal year, indicating an increase in value of $437 million.

Cotton: The value of cotton imports also witnessed an increase and amounted to $896 million in July-March period as compared with $454 million in the same period of last fiscal year 2006-07.

Fertilizer: Due to the increase in value of fertilizer the imports amounted to $598 million during July-March period of 2007-08 compared with $278 million in same period last fiscal year.

Wheat: The wheat import has been estimated at $436 million during July-March period as compared to no import of wheat in same period of last fiscal year 2006-07. sajid chaudhry