The trade deficit in services has shrunk by 38.05% in the first four months of the current fiscal year (2022-23). The decrease in trade deficit of services comes on the back of strong exports which saw an increase of 3.97% in the months under review. According to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), exports during the months of July through October in 2022 stood at USD 2,259.21 million, whereas, they were worth USD 2,172.85 million in the same months of 2021.

This shows an increase of 4.63% over the same months in the previous year. The data also showed that imports of services declined by 11.83% in the months under review. In the first four months of last fiscal year, i.e. 2021-22, imports of services stood at USD 3,483.37 million, while this fiscal year they came down to USD 3,071.13 million. Therefore, it can be seen from the data that budget deficit in services declined by 38.05% from USD 1,310.52 million in 2021 to USD 811.92 million in 2022, in the months under review.

On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, exports of services during October 2022, went up by 1.14% to USD 559.24 million as against the exports of USD 552.92 million during the October of 2021. The data also revealed that imports decreased by 25.96% from USD 986.09 million in October 2021, to USD 730.12 million in October 2022. On a month-on-month (MoM) basis, the services exports from Pakistan decreased by 2.05% as compared to the exports of USD 570.97 million in September 2022.

The imports also went down by 0.94% as compared to the imports of USD 737.08 million in August 2022, the data showed. Similarly, the merchandise deficit of the country witnessed a decrease of 30.14% in the first five months of the ongoing fiscal year. This year it stood at USD 14,406 million as compared to the deficit of USD 20,621 million last year.

The data further showed that exports from the country in the first five months of the ongoing fiscal year stood at USD 11,932 million as compared to USD 12,362 million last year, registering a decline of 3.48%. On the other hand, imports of the country decreased by 20.15% during the period under review, going down from USD 32,983 million in 2021 to USD 26,338 million during the current fiscal year.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk