Service sector deficit grows around 10% in Jan 2025

February 18, 2025 (MLN): The service sector of Pakistan posed a trade deficit of $315 million in January 2025, reflecting a surge of 9.7% as compared to a deficit of $287m recorded in the Same Period Last Year (SPLY), the latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.

The trade services deficit for the previous month was $243 million, showing a 29.6% increase compared to the previous month.

Details made available by SBP further revealed that the exports of services in January went down by 12.75% to $691m compared to $792m in December 2024.

Similarly, on a yearly basis, exports rose by 1.31% compared to the figures for January 2024.

Cumulatively in 7MFY25, services exports climbed by 6.17% to $4.74bn compared to exports of $4.47bn in 7MFY24.

Amongst the total exports in the review month, Telecommunications, Computer, and Information Services made the largest contribution with an amount of $313m in January, witnessing an increase of 18.11% compared to exports in SPLY.

Meanwhile, Other Business Services held the second position, bringing $160m in January into the country.

In terms of growth, receipts from the exports of this section went up by 6.66% compared to $150m in the same period last year.

On a sequential basis, other business services were down by 56.3% compared to exports of $150m in December 2024.

Furthermore, the export of transport and travel services contributed an amount of $79m and $68m, respectively in the review period.

The imports of services during the year amounted to $1.06bn, which rose by 3.81% compared to imports worth $969m in SPLY.

On a monthly basis, imports have increased compared to $1.03bnm recorded in the previous month.

Going forward, the imports during 7MFY25, stood at $6.67bn, up by 9.09% compared with the number during 7MFY24.

Amongst the total imports, the largest expenditure was incurred on Transport for an amount of $459m, witnessing a increase of 19.53% YoY and decline of 1.92% MoM.

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