Pakistan manages to reduce service imports by 19% in FY19

April 11, 2019 (MLN): Pakistan’s trade deficit in services improved by 6.3% in February 2019, as compared to the prior month ($211 million) whereas cumulative deficit for the 8 months of ongoing fiscal year (FY19) narrowed down by 36.5% over the year.

According to latest figures published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), trade in services for the month was thrown out of balance by $198.4 million which is 41% lesser than a deficit of $421.9 million recorded for the same period last year.

Services trade deficit for the July – February 2019 period stands at $2.3 billion, whereas last year’s cumulative deficit for the same amount of time was $3.6 billion.

This month’s diminished deficit comes about despite a larger decline in export of services (9.9%) than the decline in its imports (8.7%), when compared against previous month’s figures.

Remarkably enough, when laid in contrast with last year’s numbers the country managed to cut down on service import by nearly 30%. On the other hand, exports came down by 7.5%.

After accounting for the latest figures, the cumulative exports for FY19 have narrowed by 2% while imports have been reduced by 19.5%, over the year.

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