ISLAMABAD, March 9: The services sector export increased by 3.16 per cent in the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year over the same period last year, Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) said on Friday.

The services export proceeds reached $2.307bn in the period under review as against $2.236bn over the same period last year.

In January the services exports witnessed a robust growth of 159.75 per cent to $517.463 million as against the $199.215 million recorded in January 2006.

This showed that there was a huge potential for services export, which remained untapped due to lack of concentration on promotion of services export in foreign markets.

On the other hand, the import of services rose by 4.07 per cent to $4.856 billion in July-Jan period of the current fiscal year as against $4.666 billion over the same period of the last year.

Imports of services climbed by 2.37 per cent to $690.123m in January 2007 as against $674.149m over the same month last year.

The deficit in trade in services widened by 4.91 per cent to $2.548 billion during the period under review as against $2.429 billion over the same period of the last year.