Pakistan spends over $ 1235 million on import of travel services during FY 2019-20

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has spent US $ 1235.966 million by acquiring different travel services from various countries during the fiscal year 2019-20.

This shows decline of 27.68 percent as compared to US $ 1709.030 million spent through provision of services during the last year (2018-19), Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.

During the month under review, the imports of personal travel services decreased by 27.07 percent, by going down from US $ 1662.240 million last year to US $ 1212.266 million during July-June (2019-20).

Among these personal services, imports of health related expenditure and education expenditure decreased by 60.73 percent and 14.94 percent respectively.

In addition, import of other personal services were also dipped by 28.05 percent, out of which religious services witnessed nominal decline of 1.47 percent whereas the imports other services decreased by 36.26 percent.

On the other hand, imports of business services witness declined of 49.35 percent, by going down from US $46.790 million to US $23.700 million, the PBS data revealed.

It is pertinent to mention here that the services trade deficit of the country during the fiscal year (2019-20) decreased by 42.96 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

During the period from July-June, 2019-20, services exports decreased by 8.66 percent, whereas imports reduced by 24.25 percent, according the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The services worth US $ 5.449 billion exported during the period under review as compared the exports of US $ 5.966 billion in same period of last year, whereas imports of services into the country was recorded at US $ 8.284 billion as against the imports of US $ 10.936 billion, the data revealed.