Pakistan’s exports of services have increased by14 pc YoY to reach $37.71 million in January, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has reported. The increase in exports is likely to provide some relief to the government facing a current account deficit in 2016-17.
In the first seven months of the current fiscal year, exports of services faced a downward trend. They fell 10.30pc to $2.895 billion in July-Jan. The annual drop was 7.14pc to $5.46bn in 2015-16.
The services sector has proved to be the major driving force of economic growth. Its share increased from 56pc of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005-06 to 57.7pc in 2014-15.Service sub-sectors include finance and insurance, transport and storage, wholesale and retail trade, public administration and defence.
Pakistan has opened up its market to foreign service-providers, particularly in banking, insurance, telecommunications and retail areas.
The import of services increased 2.48pc to $4.881bn in July-Jan. They fell 10.96pc to $7.87bn in 2015-16 against $8.843bn in the previous year.
Transportation, travel, communications, insurance, financial, computer/information and other business services faced a decline in imports.
The trade deficit in services increased 29.36pc to $1.986bn in July-Jan YoY basis.
