ISLAMABAD, Feb 14: The services sector export declined by 55.61 per cent in December 2006 over the same month of the last year, Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) said on Tuesday.

The services export proceeds dipped to $24.892m in December 2006 as against $56.078 million over the same month last year.

The export of services witnessed a positive growth in November and October 2006. The sudden decline in export will have a serious implication on the country’s balance of payments.The half year export of services declined by 12.15 per cent to $1.78 billion during the July-Dec period of the fiscal year 2006-07 as against $2.03 billion over the same period last year.On the other hand, import of services rose by 0.41 per cent to $76.356 million in December 2006 as against $76.042 million over the same month last year.

Import of services climbed by 4.36 per cent to $4.16 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year as against $3.99 billion over the same period last year.

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