January 22, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 12, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: The services sector export dipped by 28 per cent in the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year over the same months last year, the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) said on Monday.

Proceeds from services export totalled $1.09 billion in the five months of the current fiscal year against $1.514 billion over the same months last year.

The declining trend in the export of services turned to worst during November 2007 as it declined by 53.77 per cent to $225.390 million this year against $487.543 million last year.

Like commodities, the trade in services also slowing down due to high cost of doing business, particularly due to the high energy cost. Marked reduction was observed in the export of construction, tourism etc during the period under review.

Unlike exports, the import of services jumped by 13.15 per cent to $3.931 billion during July-Nov period of the current fiscal year against $3.474bn last year.

Even the growth in import of services was much more in November 2007 as it climbed by 19.63pc to $944.426m against $789.433m in November 2006.

This robust growth in import widened the deficit in the trade of services, which reached to $2.840 billion during the period under review as against $1.960 billion last year.

On monthly basis, the deficit in services soared by 138.18 per cent to $719.036m in November 2007 as against $301.890m over the same month of the last year.