ISLAMABAD: The country’s services trade deficit in September 2017 narrowed by 26.15 per cent compared to September 2016 as the exports increased by 9.45 per cent and imports decreased by 7.33 per cent.
The services trade deficit declined to $ 275.37 million in September 2017 from $ 372.89 million in the same month of previous year, according to latest data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The data shows that services export during the period under review was recorded at $ 457.78 million compared to the export of $ 418.24 million during September 2016.
Similarly, the services imports went down from $ 791.13 million in September 2016 to $ 733.15 million in the same month of the current fiscal year.
Similarly, on a month-on-month basis, the services deficit also narrowed by 39.48 per cent as the exports went up by 12.64 per cent, on the other hand, the imports plunged by 14.89 per cent in September 2017 compared to August 2017.
The services trade deficit during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, however, widened by 5.87 per cent as it rose to $ 1.225 billion in July-September (2017-18) from $ 1.157 billion in the same period of previous year.
The services export during first quarter of current fiscal year increased to $ 1.271 billion compared to that of $ 1.2 billion in July-September (2016-17) thus showing an increase of 5.55 per cent, while imports during the corresponding period also increased by 5.71 per cent to $ 2.496 billion in July-September (2017-18) from $ 2.36 billion in same period of last year.
