*ISLAMABAD – *The country’s services trade deficit narrowed by 36.54pcduring the first eight months of the current fiscal year as compared to thecorresponding period of last year.
The services trade deficit during July-February 2018-19 was recorded at$2.303 billion as against the deficit of $3.630 billion duringJuly-February 2017-18.
The services’ imports into the country during the period under reviewdecreased by 19.54pc to $5.775 billion from $7.178 billion last year,according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
As compared to the imports, the exports of services witnessed a nominaldecrease of 2.14pc during the period under review.
The services’ exports during the first eight months of the current fiscalyear were recorded at $3.472 billion as against the exports of $3.548billion during the same period of last year.
Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, the services’ imports into the countryreduced by 29.67pc, as it declined 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 7.47pc as it went down from$0.443 billion in February 2018 to $0.410 billion in February 2019.
Based on the figures, the deficit during the month was recorded at $0.198billion in February 2019 as against the deficit of $0.421 billion inFebruary 2018, showing a huge decline of 52.98pc on a year-on-year basis.
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On the other hand, on a month-on-month basis, the imports increased by8.74pc in February 2019 as compared to the imports of $0.666 billion inJanuary 2019. The exports also increased by 9.94pc in February 2019 ascompared to the exports of $0.455 billion in January 2019.
The country’s merchandise trade deficit plunged by 13.02pc duringJuly-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 $27.216billion recorded during the same period of the previous year.
The merchandise exports during the period under review witnessed anincrease of 0.11pc to $17.08 billion from $17.064 billion during July-March2017-18.
On the other hand, the imports declined by 7.96pc to $40.755 billion from$44.281 billion recorded in the first nine months of the last fiscal year.
On a year-on-year basis, the merchandise imports into the country witnesseda decrease of 20.88pc in March 2019 as compared to March 2018.
The imports during March 2019 were recorded at $4.155 billion against theimports of $5.25 billion in March 2018.
