ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s export of services witnessed a substantial decline of 32.16 per cent in the first eight months of the current fiscal year from a year ago.

In absolute terms, export of services fell to $3.380 billion in July-Feb 2014 as against $4.983bn over the corresponding months of last year, suggested data compiled by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The decline is mainly driven by decrease in exports of government services.

On a monthly basis, export of services rebounded and witnessed an increase of 75.68pc in February 2014 over the same month last year.

Last year, annual export of services reached $6.618bn in July-June period of 2012-13 compared with $5.035bn in the corresponding period last year.

The share of services sector increased from 56pc of the GDP in 2005-06 to 57.7pc in 2012-13.

Major sub-sectors are finance and insurance, transport and storage, wholesale and retail trade, public administration and defence.

Pakistan has opened up its market to foreign service providers. But import of services dropped to $5.043bn in July-Feb 2014 from $5.435bn over the corresponding months of last year, reflecting a decline of 7.21pc.

Last year, import of services declined to $7.758bn in July-June 2012-13 as against $8.227bn in the same period last year.

On monthly basis, import of services declined by 2.20pc to $587.07 m in February 2014 from $600.26 m over the corresponding month of last year.—Staff Reporter