September 20, 2019 (MLN): Pakistan's services trade deficit for the first 2 months of current Fiscal year (July-August) was $1.04 billion, as compared to the deficit of $803 million in the corresponding period of previous fiscal year, displaying an increase of 30%.
According to the data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the trade deficit for the month of August 2019 stood at $558 million, as compared to the deficit of $484 million from July 2019, signifying an increase of 15.3%.
The imports of services increased by 10.6% in FY20, and 5% in the month of August. The major components within this section, i.e. Travel and Transport services, observed a growth of 2.8% and drop of 1.5% in FY20 respectively.
On the other hand, the government failed to increase exports of services as they declined by 7.1% to $809 million, whereas in August it fell by 6.9% to $390 million. In this segment, the insurance and pension services endured the largest decline of 55.6%.