ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s exports of services witnessed growth of nearly 56 per cent year-on-year to $694.99 million in March, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Thursday.

The increase will help the government control the widening current account deficit in 2016-17.

In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the exports of services recorded a positive growth. Similarly, services exports rose 5.82pc to $4.3 billion in July-March.

The annual drop was 7.14pc to $5.46bn in 2015-16.

The services sector has emerged as the main driver of economic growth. Its share increased from 56pc of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005-06 to 57.7pc in 2014-15.

Its 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, particularly in the banking, insurance, telecommunications and retail areas.

The import of services was up 2.98pc to $6.299bn in July-March. On a monthly basis, the increase was 8.17pc in March when services imports clocked up at $731.44m.

These fell 10.96pc to $7.87bn in 2015-16 against $8.843bn of services imports in the preceding year.

Services whose imports witnessed decline include transportation, travel, communications, insurance, financial, and computer/information.

The trade deficit in services decelerated 2.74pc to $1.977bn in July-March on a year-on-year basis.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2017