Trade deficit in services shrinks by 36% in 8 months of FY19

March 18, 2019 (MLN): Pakistan’s trade deficit in goods and services for February 2019 has narrowed by 21% compared to previous month, as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) records the provisional figure at $1.85 billion against January’s revised figure of $2.3 billion.

The cumulative deficit for these 8 months of fiscal year 2019 (FY19) stands at $21.6 billion dollars which is 8% smaller than $23.5 billion recorded for the same period last year.

In particular, the trade deficit in services for the July-Feb FY19 period shrunk by 36.5% when compared to the deficit in same period last year. The figure has dropped from $3.6 billion in FY18 to $2.3 billion in FY19.

Similarly, the deficit shrunk by 6.6% compared to January’s deficit of $212 million, as it shrunk down to $198 million in February.

According to SBP, the export of services during the month stands at $455 million while January’s exports stood at $410 million, showing a decline of $45 million. However, the import decline over the month emerges as the primary cause of improvement in balance of trade, as it marks a drop of $59 million.

Based on the data, cutting down on import of transport services, travel services and other business services paid off as these components made up the bulk of total imports otherwise.

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