ISLAMABAD: The import of gold during the first seven months (July-February) of the current fiscal year has increased by 27.81 per cent as compared to same period of the previous year.
During the period under review, 326 kilograms of the yellow metal valuing $13.18 million was imported against an import of 278 kg gold worth $10.31 million last year.
However, on yearly and monthly basis, the import of yellow metal in February 2018 plunged by 67.2 per cent and 72.2 per cent when compared to imports during February 2017 and January 2018 respectively, according to the latest data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
Imports during February 2018 declined to $335,000 from $1.021 million in February 2017, and $1.2 million in January 2018.
Similarly, the overall metal group import also increased by 27.43 per cent in July-February (2017-18) to $3.45 billion from $2.7 billion in the same period of previous year.
Iron and steel scrap import also surged by 59.25 per cent as it rose to $1.03 billion in first seven months of current fiscal year from $650.13 million in July-February (2016-17).
Likewise, the import of iron and steel also rose to $1.56 billion in Jul-February (2017-18) from $1.3 billion in same period of preceding fiscal year, showing an increase of 18.1 per cent.
Aluminum wrought and work import also increased by 23.4 per cent from $121.18 million in July-February 2016-17 to $149.5 million.
On a year-on-year basis, the overall metal group import in February rose by 14.33 per cent while on month-on-month basis the import went down by 15.6 per cent in February 2018 as compared to that of February 2017.
The import of overall metal group was recorded $407.8 million in February 2018 while it was recorded $356.68 million and $483.14 million in February 2017 and January 2018 respectively.
