ISLAMABAD: The import of transport services by Pakistan from other countries witnessed a decrease of 11.54 per cent during the first five months of the current financial year (2018-19) as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Pakistan imported transport services worth $1411 million in July-November 2018-19 against the imports of $1595 million in July-November 2017-18, showing a decline of 11.54pc, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The air transport services’ imports decreased by 0.72pc to $579.990 million during the period under review against $584.180 million last year.
Among the air transport services, imports of passenger services increased by 2.49pc, however, the freight import services decreased by 30.70pc.
The sea transport imports decreased by 17.34pc by going down from $995.060 million last year to $822.517 million this year.
Among sea transport, the freight services imports decreased by 19.45pc while the imports of other services increased by 10.18pc.
The services of road and rail transport imports witnessed a decline of 65.47pc and 50.93pc during the period under review.
The road transport services imports declined from 9.660 million to 3.336 million whereas the rail transport service dipped from $3.662 million to $1.797 million, the PBS data revealed.
It is pertinent to mention that overall services trade deficit shrank by 29.11pc during the first half of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year.
The services trade deficit during July-December (2018-19) was recorded at $1.945 billion against the deficit of $2.744 billion during July-December (2017-18), showing decline of 29.11 percent, official data revealed.
Meanwhile, the country’s merchandize trade deficit plunged by 9.66pc during July-January (2018-19) as the deficit contracted by over $2 billion to $19.264 billion in the period under review against the deficit of $21.324 billion recorded during same period of the previous year.
