ISLAMABAD: The service trade deficit during first five months of the year 2018-2019 has witnessed a whopping decline of 35.4 per cent as compared to the same period of the previous year.
The services trade deficit contracted to $1.432 billion in July to November 2018 from $2.216 billion in the same period of the year 2017, according to latest data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The exports of services during the period under review increased by 1.39 per cent to $2.17 billion, whereas the imports of services plunged by 17.33 per cent to $3.6 per cent in July to November 2018 from $4.357 billion worth of imports recorded during same period in 2017.
On an Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, the services trade deficit also shrunk by 40.33 per cent as the imports fell by 23.18 per cent while the exports recorded a nominal decrease of 0.23 per cent during November 2018 as compared to the same month of the year 2017.
According to data, the services trade deficit contracted to $333 million in November 2018 from $558.07 million in the same month of the preceding year.
Similarly the imports of services trade declined to $749 million in the corresponding
month compared to the same month of the year 2017 whereas the export went down from $416.97 million in November 2017 to $416 million in November 2018.
It may be added that the overall trade deficit of the country during first half of
current fiscal year also decreased by 5.07 per cent to $16.821 billion against the trade deficit of $17.72 billion in same period of the preceding year.
The country’s exports increased by 2.19 per cent to $11.216 billion in July-December (2018-19) from $10.976 billion during the same period of previous fiscal year.
Whereas the imports fell 2.29 per cent to $28.037 billion from $28.7 billion in
July-December (2017-18), the data revealed.
