Pakistan's tea imports up 0.61 percent to 495.957 millions

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's tea imports increased by 0.61 percent during the first ten months of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year.Pakistan imported tea worth $495.957 million during July-April (2018-19) against the imports of $492.966 million during July-April (2017-18), according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).In terms of quantity, the tea imports into the country during the period under review increased by 18.36 percent by going up from the imports of 161,789 metric tons to 191,497 metric tons.On year-on-year basis, the tea imports into the country witnessed an increase of 19.22 percent during the month of April 2019 compared to the same month of last year.The tea imports into the country were recorded at $50.140 million in April 2019 compared to the imports of $42.058 million in April 2018, the PBS data revealed.On month-on-month basis, the tea imports, however decreased by 4.01 percent in April 2019 when compared to the imports of $52.232 million in March 2019.The overall food imports into the country witnessed decrease of 9.85 percent during the first ten months of the current fiscal year compared to the last year.The total food imports into the country were recorded at $4702.440 million during the current year against the imports of $5216.454 million during last year, the data revealed.It is pertinent to mention here that the country''s merchandize trade deficit plunged by 12.82 percent during the first ten 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.

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