01Key Takeaways
- Pakistan imported $50.01 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 28.7% from $70.18 billion in 2022, the sharpest year-over-year drop in this dataset's five-year record for the country.
- Mineral fuels were by far the largest import category at 33.4% of the total ($16.72 billion), reflecting Pakistan's heavy reliance on imported oil and gas.
- China supplied 23.4% of imports ($11.69 billion), nearly two and a half times what the next-largest partner shipped in.
- Indonesia ranked fourth among partners at 7.0% ($3.49 billion), a figure closely tied to Pakistan's 6.6% ($3.28 billion) import category for animal and vegetable fats and oils.
025-Year Trend
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $50.1B | $45.8B | $72.9B | $70.2B | $50.0B |
03Top Import Markets (2023)
| Rank | Partner | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $11.7B | 23.4% |
| 2 | United Arab Emirates | $4.8B | 9.6% |
| 3 | Saudi Arabia | $4.5B | 8.9% |
| 4 | Indonesia | $3.5B | 7.0% |
| 5 | Qatar | $3.3B | 6.6% |
| 6 | Kuwait | $1.9B | 3.8% |
| 7 | United States | $1.7B | 3.3% |
| 8 | Singapore | $1.1B | 2.2% |
| 9 | Japan | $1.0B | 2.0% |
| 10 | Australia | $951.2M | 1.9% |
04Top Import Categories (2023)
| Rank | Category | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mineral Fuels, Mineral Oils and Products of their Distillation; Bituminous Substances; Mineral Waxes | $16.7B | 33.4% |
| 2 | Electrical Machinery and Equipment and parts thereof; Sound Recorders and Reproducers, Television Image and Sound Recorders and Reproducers, and Parts and Accessories of such Articles | $3.5B | 7.1% |
| 3 | Animal or Vegetable Fats and Oils and their Cleavage Products; Prepared Edible Fats; Animal or Vegetable Waxes | $3.3B | 6.6% |
| 4 | Iron and Steel | $2.8B | 5.5% |
| 5 | Nuclear Reactors, Boilers, Machinery and Mechanical Appliances; Parts thereof | $2.7B | 5.3% |
| 6 | Organic Chemicals | $2.4B | 4.9% |
| 7 | Plastics and Articles thereof | $2.2B | 4.5% |
| 8 | Oil Seeds and Oleaginous Fruits; Miscellaneous Grains, Seeds and Fruit; Industrial or Medicinal Plants; Straw and Fodder | $1.3B | 2.6% |
| 9 | Vehicles other than Railway or Tramway Rolling-Stock, and parts and accessories thereof | $1.2B | 2.5% |
| 10 | Edible Vegetables and certain Roots and Tubers | $1.1B | 2.1% |
05Trade Partner Map
06Analysis
Imports Collapsed Amid a Foreign-Exchange Crisis
Pakistan imported $50.01 billion worth of goods in 2023, a drop of 28.7% from the $70.18 billion recorded in 2022. That is the sharpest single-year decline anywhere in this five-year dataset, and it did not happen by accident. Pakistan's central bank imposed import restrictions to control external payments as foreign exchange reserves fell to levels barely covering a month of controlled imports. Businesses across multiple sectors reported difficulty opening letters of credit during this period, a direct constraint on how much the country could physically bring in from abroad, regardless of demand. A 28.7% drop of this size rarely reflects weaker appetite for foreign goods. It more often reflects a government actively rationing how much of that appetite the country's reserves can afford to satisfy.
The five-year trend shows how unusual 2023 was. Imports stood at $50.06 billion in 2019, essentially the same level as 2023, then dipped to $45.78 billion in 2020. A sharp rebound followed. The total jumped to $72.89 billion in 2021 and stayed close to that level at $70.18 billion in 2022, before the 2023 collapse erased almost the entire two-year gain. Pakistan's import bill, in effect, spent 2023 back where it started five years earlier. Few countries in this dataset show a round trip this dramatic within a single five-year window, climbing sharply for two straight years and then giving almost all of that gain back in one.
Mineral Fuels and Machinery Lead a Diversified Import List
Mineral fuels made up 33.4% of Pakistan's imports in 2023, worth $16.72 billion, more than four times the size of the next-largest category. Pakistan produces only a fraction of the oil and gas it consumes, and that gap shows up clearly at the top of this list. Electrical machinery followed at 7.1% ($3.55 billion), and animal, vegetable and microbial fats and oils, edible oils among them, added 6.6% ($3.28 billion). Iron and steel contributed 5.5% ($2.76 billion), and machinery and mechanical appliances brought in 5.3% ($2.65 billion). Organic chemicals added 4.9% ($2.43 billion), and plastics contributed 4.5% ($2.24 billion). Oil seeds and related plants added 2.6% ($1.28 billion), vehicles contributed 2.5% ($1.23 billion), and vegetables closed out the top ten at 2.1% ($1.06 billion).
That edible oils figure connects directly to the partner data below. It is not a coincidence that a major global supplier of vegetable oil also ranks high on Pakistan's list of import partners. Beyond fuel and edible oils, the rest of the list reads like the input sheet for a manufacturing economy. Steel, machinery, plastics and organic chemicals all feed factories rather than end consumers directly. That mix says more about what Pakistan builds than about what its households buy off the shelf.
China Supplies Nearly a Quarter of Pakistan's Imports
China supplied 23.4% of Pakistan's imports in 2023, worth $11.69 billion, nearly two and a half times what the second-largest partner shipped in. The United Arab Emirates followed at 9.6% ($4.82 billion), and Saudi Arabia added 8.9% ($4.48 billion). Together, those three suppliers made up 42.0% of total import value.
Indonesia ranked fourth at 7.0% ($3.49 billion). Indonesia is the world's largest producer and exporter of palm oil, supplying roughly half of global demand, a detail that lines up closely with the animal and vegetable fats and oils category described above. Qatar followed close behind at 6.6% ($3.30 billion), and Kuwait added 3.8% ($1.92 billion). The United States supplied 3.3% ($1.66 billion), and Singapore contributed 2.2% ($1.11 billion). Japan added 2.0% ($1.02 billion), and Australia closed out the top ten at 1.9% ($951.23 million).
Several Gulf partners high on this list, Qatar and Saudi Arabia among them, are among the region's major oil and gas producers, a detail that lines up with mineral fuels sitting atop Pakistan's import category breakdown. The pattern is a familiar one across this dataset: a country's list of import partners often mirrors its list of import categories once a single commodity dominates the total as heavily as fuel does here.
Taken together, Pakistan's 2023 import data describes an economy forced to pull back sharply after a foreign-exchange squeeze, still heavily dependent on imported energy, and sourcing a large share of its manufactured and processed goods from a small handful of Asian and Gulf partners.