KARACHI: The export of services dipped by 7.15 per cent to $809.03 million in the first two months of this fiscal year, as against $871.35m in same period of 2018-19, reported the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

On monthly basis, export of services plunged 11.27pc year-on-year to $390.41m in August, from $440m and lowered by 6.74pc month-on-month from $418m in July this year.

In 2018-19, services exports had hit $5.37 billion, showing a modest growth over the last year’s $5.28bn.

The import of services reached $1.85bn in July-August, higher by 10.58pc, over $1.673bn in corresponding month of last year. Meanwhile in August, services imports soared by 30.57pc year-on-year to $947.63m, from $725.76 in same month of 2018 and 4.9pc month-on-month from $903.33m in July this year.

The import of services reached to $9.66bn in July-June 2019, fell by 14.9pc from $11.35bn over the corresponding months of last year.

During the two-month period, trade deficit in services jumped by 29.83pc to $1.04bn in as against $802.57m over the corresponding months of last year.

The trade deficit in services surged by 95pc year-on-year to $557.22m in August, from $285.76m while on a monthly basis, the negative gap rose 14.96pc over July’s level of $484.71m.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2019