ISLAMABAD: The country’s services trade deficit narrowed by 36.54 per cent during the first eight months of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year.
The services trade deficit during July-February (2018-19) was recorded at $2.303 billion against the deficit of $3.630 billion during July-February (2017-18), showing a decline of 36.54 per cent, official data revealed.
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The services’ imports into the country during the period under review decreased by 19.54 per cent to $5.775 billion from $7.178 billion last year, according to latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Compared to imports, the exports of services witnessed a marginal negative growth of 2.14 per cent during the period.
The services exports during the first eight months of current fiscal year were recorded at $3.472 billion against the exports of $3.548 billion during the same period of last year.
Meanwhile, on an year-on-year basis, the services imports into the country reduced by 29.67 per cent declining from $0.865 billion in February 2018 to $0.608 billion in February 2019, the data revealed.
The exports from the country also decreased by 7.47 per cent by going down from $0.443 billon during February 2018 to $0.410 billion in February 2019.
Based on the figures, the deficit during the month was recorded at $0.198 billion in February 2019 against the deficit of $0.421 billion in February 2018, showing a huge decline of 52.98 per cent on an year-on-year basis.
On the other hand, imports on a month-on-month basis, increased by 8.74 per cent in February 2019 when compared to the imports of $0.666 billion in January 2019.
Exports also increased by 9.94 per cent in February 2019 when compared to exports of US $0.455 billion in January 2019, according to the data.
Meanwhile, the country’s merchandise trade deficit plunged by 13.02 per cent during July-March (2018-19) as the deficit contracted by over $3.544 billion to $23.672 billion in the period under review against the deficit of $27.216 billion recorded during same period of the previous year.
The exports during the period under review witnessed an increase of 0.11 per cent to $17.08 billion from $17.064 billion during July-March (2017-18).
On the other hand, the imports declined by 7.96 per cent to $40.755 billion from $44.281 billion recorded during first nine months of current fiscal year.
On year-on-year basis, the imports into the country witnessed negative growth of 20.88 per cent during March 2019 when compared to the imports of same month of last year.
The imports during March 2019 were recorded at $4.155 billion against the imports of $ 5.25 billion in March 2018, according to the data.
