ISLAMABAD, Sept 20: The import bill of oil and eatables witnessed a decline by over nine per cent in the first two months of the current fiscal year over last year, data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.

In absolute terms, import bill of these two products declined to $3.285 billion in July-August 2013 from $3.615bn during the same period last year.

Pakistan’s total import bill reached $7.386bn during the months under review as against $7.346bn, showing an increase of over 0.54pc.

This shows that less than half of the total import bill was consumed by import of these two commodities in the first two months of the current fiscal year over last year.

The import bill of food products witnessed a substantial decline of 20.36pc at $653.187m in July-August 2013 as against $820.204m over the corresponding month last year.

The food items import decline was mainly driven by import of palm oil, soyabean oil and spices. The major factor is the depreciation of rupee because of which imports become more costly.

Statistics showed that oil import bill fell to $2632bn in July-August this year as against $2.795bn over last year, indicating a decline of 5.82pc.

Of these, import of crude oil was up by 15.82pc to $967.707m during July-August 2013 as against $836.910m last year.

Import of petroleum products fell to $1.664bn in July-August 2013, down by 14.99pc from $1.958bn last year.