S L up to March petroleum import bill jumps to US$ 1.42 billion (pics:hansafx.net)

Sri Lanka’s petroleum import bill during the first quarter of this year has gone up by 43.4% year on year to year, to incur a sum of US$ 1.42 billion.

This is compared to US$ 996.7 million the country spent during the same quarter last year.

Meanwhile during March this year, the country’s petroleum import bill has gone up by 16.4% year on year incurring a bill of US$ 408.6%.

This is compared to US$ 351 million spent during March 2011.

Central Bank says, the increase expenditure on petroleum imports during March 2012 came as a result of the  high average crude oil import price.

Accordingly a barrel of crude oil in the world market has gone up to US$ 125.39 from US dollars 111.31 per barrel in March 2011.

This also has resulted in the expenditure on imports of refined petroleum products too increasing by around 18% as a result of higher prices.

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