Services trade deficit shrinks 10.3 percent

ISLAMABAD: The country’s services trade deficit witnessed reduction of 10.16 percent during the first eight months of the current financial year as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

During the period under review, country’s services exports registered about 5.55 percent growth, whereas services’ imports reduced by 1.19 percent, according the foreign trade statistics of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

In July-February 2019/20), the exports reached to $3.701 billion against the exports of $3.506 billion during the same period of last year, it added. Meanwhile, the services imports witnessed decrease of 1.19 percent and went down from $6.136 billion in first eight months to $6.064 billion of same period of current financial year, it said.

Based on the figures, the services trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at $2.363 billion against the deficit of $2.630 during last year, showing decline of 10.16 percent. On year-on-year basis, the exports from the country increased by 6.72 percent during February 2020 as against the exports same month of last year.

The exports during February 2020 were recorded at $457.51 million against the exports of $428.7 million in February 2019. The imports also witnessed increase 25.7 percent during the month as these went up from $682.11 million in February 2019 to $857.42 million in February 2020.

On month-on-month basis, the exports from the country decreased by 8.92 percent in February 2020 when compared to the exports of $502.34 million in January 2020.On the other hand, the imports into the country increased by 27.31 percent in February 2020 when compared to the imports of $673.50 million in January.

Meanwhile, the country’s merchandise trade deficit witnessed significant reduction in first three quarters of current financial year and declined by 26.45 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year. During the period under review country’s exports registered about 2.23 percent growth, whereas imports were down by 14.42 percent, the PBS reported.