Jawad Ahmed ISLAMABAD, April 21 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan's oil import bill climbed by 92.4% in the first eight months of fiscal year 2021-22, ballooning to $11.009 billion from $5.723 billion in the same months of the previous fiscal year 2020-21. This accounted for 23% of the total import bill of the country for the period. The surge in oil import bill is mainly due to a sharp increase in the price of crude oil on the international market. According to estimates of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the import bill of petroleum group surged by 20% to $1.330 billion in February 2022 from $1.108 billion in the previous month of January. Petroleum product imports grew by more than 102% year-on-year to $5.902 billion in the first eight months of the ongoing fiscal year compared to $2.911 billion in the same period of last fiscal period. Crude oil imports increased by 64% to $2.963 billion in the last eight months, up from $1.806 billion in the same period of last year. In the petroleum group, the import bill of liquefied natural gas (LNG) surged 126% year-on-year to $2.053 billion from $907 million while the value of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) fell 8.7% to $0.090 million during the July-February period from $0.098 million last year. Machinery imports were the second-largest category in the import bill. Machinery imports increased 23.6% year-on-year to $6.364 billion from $5.147 billion. The next biggest component in the import bill was food commodities, whose imports rose 19.2% year-on-year to $5.566 billion from $4.670 billion. The increase is due mainly to massive imports of palm oil registering a 45.3% year-on-year rise to $2.179 billion from $1.499 billion. The growing cost of petroleum, machinery and food has resulted in a widening trade deficit, which is giving the government worries about the external side. According to the SBP, the overall trade deficit in the first eight months of the current fiscal year is $27.285 billion, up from $16.030 billion in the same period of previous fiscal year. Pakistan is heavily reliant on other countries for oil, machinery, and food supplies. The rise in food and fuel prices, as well as supply chain disruptions, have contributed to increase in domestic prices of these items. The upshift of these prices has been reflected in local market, as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation recorded average 10.5% increase during July-February FY2021-22. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in a recent publication estimated that the average inflation is expected to increase by 11% at the end of FY21-22. The rise in global oil and natural gas prices is a key factor to growing inflation in Pakistan since these commodities account for 20% of the country’s entire import bill.