The trade deficit in services decreased by 88.97% during the first seven months of the current fiscal year as exports increased by 6.39%, according to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The country's exports from July through January of this year were $4,196.76 million as opposed to $3,944.84 million in July through January of last year, showing an increase of 6.39%. On the other hand, imports of services decreased by 32.67% from $6,681.39 million in the previous year to $4,498.50 million throughout the course of the examined year.

According to the data, the services trade deficit decreased by 32.67% from the previous fiscal year's deficit of $2,736.56 million to this year's deficit of $301.74 million. In comparison to January 2022, when exports totalled $513.07 million, services exports increased by 17.31% to $601.87 million in January 2023. As compared to the exports of $735.10 million in December 2022, the country's exports of services fell by 18.12% month over month. The report showed that the imports decreased by 10.05% against the imports of $649.38 million in December 2022.

It is important to note that, compared to the same time last year, the country's merchandise trade deficit decreased by 33.18% over the first eight months of the current fiscal year. The trade deficit from July to February (2022-23) was $21.30 billion, down 33.18% from the deficit of $31.879 billion from July to February (2021-22).

Exports were registered at $18.793 billion during the period compared to $20.573 billion the previous year, a fall of 8.65%. Whereas imports had a steep reduction of 23.56%, going from $52.452 billion last year to $40.093 billion this fiscal year, the PBS data showed.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk