ISLAMABAD, Oct 6 (APP):The country’s services trade deficit contracted by 50.41 percent during the first two months of the current financial year (2019-20) as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
The services trade deficit during July-August (2020-21) was recorded at $462.07 million against the deficit of $931.77 million in July-August (2019-20), according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
The services exports during the two months under review were recorded at US $ 758.05 million against the exports of US $884.14 million last year, showing decline of 14.26 percent.
The imports into the country also shrunk by 32.81 percent by falling from US $ 1815.91 million to US $ 1220.12 million, the PBS data revealed.
Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the services exports from the country decreased by 16.79 percent and were recorded at $352.92 million in August 2020 against the exports of $424.15 million in August 2019.
The imports also witnessed sharp decline of 51.39 percent by falling from $936.03 million in August 2019 to $454.99 million in August 2020, the data revealed.
On month-on-month basis, the exports from the country witnessed decrease of 12.89 percent in August 2020 when compared to the exports of US $ 405.13 million in July 2020.
Likewise, imports into the country declined by 40.53 percent in August 2020 when compared to the imports of US $ 765.13 million in July 2020.
Meanwhile, the country’s merchandize trade deficit increased by 2.02 percent during the first quarter of current fiscal year (2020-21) as compared to the deficit of the corresponding period of last year.
The deficit during July-September (2020-21) was recorded at $5.804 billion as compared to the deficit of $5.689 billion, showing increase 2.02 percent.
During the period under review, the country’s exports registered negative growth of 0.94 percent, by going down from $5.510 billion last year to $5.458 billion during the current year.
On the other hand, the imports decreased by 0.56 percent, from $11.199 billion last year to $11.262 billion during the current year.
