LAIBA BABAR

KARACHI: The import of gold has declined by 41.26 percent during seven months of current fiscal year.

While 425kgs of gold was imported in the same period of the previous year, this year it amounted to 248kgs.

Gold worth $9.289 million was imported during July 2016 – January 2017 against the import receipt of $15.813 million in last year.

A decline of 26.53 percent and 33.4 percent was also witnessed in the import of yellow metal in January 2017 as compare to the import of January 2016 and December 2016 according to the data of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The overall metal group import however increased by 4.25 percent in July 2016 – January 2017 to $2.356 billion from $2.26 billion in the same period of last year.

But gold import decreased to $1.385 million in January 2017 from $1.885 million in January 2016 and $2.082 million in December 2016.

Falling of gold import has been faced since the last week of September 2016. Gold prices have come down from $1,340 per ounce to $1,256 – biggest decline since June 2016.

Other than this, a 7.47 % decrease in Iron and Steel scrap import has also been witnessed: The imports bill came down to $553.169 million in the first seven months of the current fiscal year from $597.833 million in July-January 2015-16.