ISLAMABAD: The country’s services exports continued shrinking for the fourth consecutive month on year-on-year basis, as the figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed a 24.65 per cent decline in April.
The PBS data shows that the reduction in April was 24.65pc as the total amount dipped to $486.09 million with the country witnessing a reduced volume of overall exports as well during the current fiscal year.
But the trend isn’t limited to just exports as the import of services also contracted by 39.70pc to $6.413 billion in July-April 2022-23 against $10.635bn when compared with the same period last year. Import of services in April dipped by 38.85pc to $667.04m from $1.09bn over the same month last year.
During the first half of 2022-23, the export of services had moved in positive trajectory but started contracting in January. However, the sector has witnessed 1.46pc growth to $6.009bn during the July-April 2022-23 period against the $5.923bn level recorded in the corresponding months of last year.
In 2021-22, the export of services had grown by 17.20pc to $6.968bn from $5.945bn in the preceding year.
When it comes to trade deficit, the data shows that it narrowed by 91.44pc to $403.45m in July-April against $4.712bn over the corresponding months of last year. In April, the trade deficit in services decelerated by 59.40pc to $180.95m against $445.74m over the preceding month.
