Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The tea imports into the country witnessed declined of 15.61 percent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year (2019-20) as against the same period of last fiscal year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported. The tea imports into the country were recorded at $376.240 million during July-March (2019-20) as against imports of $445.816 million in July-March (2018-19), according to latest PBS data. In terms of quantity, the tea imports witnessed decline of 8.68 percent during the period under review by going down from the imports of 170.311 metric tons last year to 155.528 metric tons during the current year. The imports of overall food commodities during the period under review declined by 7 percent as these decline from $4261.355 million last year to $3963.258 million during the current year. Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the tea imports into the country decreased by 0.69 percent during the month of March 2020 compared to the same month of last year. The tea imports into the country in March 2020 were recorded at $51.872 million compared to the imports of $52.231 million in March 2019. On month-on-month basis, the food imports increased by 5.36 percent in March 202 when compared to the imports of $49.234 million in February 2019, the PBS data revealed.
It is pertinent to mention that the country’s merchandize trade deficit witnessed significant reduction in first ten months (July-April) of current financial year and declined by 25.68% as compared to the corresponding period of last year. During the period under review country’s exports registered about 3.92% decrease, whereas imports witnessed sharp decline of 16.50%, the PBS reported.
