Pakistan earns US $224mn from export of travel services in 1st half

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan earned US $224.120 million by providing different travel services in various countries during the first half of current financial year 2020-21.

This shows decline of 18.54 percent as compared to US $275.114 million same services were provided during the corresponding period of fiscal year 2019-20, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.

During the period under review, the personal travel services decreased by 17.98 percent, from US $272.224 million last year to US $223.290 million during July-December (2020-21).

Among these personal services, the exports of personal expenditure however rose by 44.26 percent while the education related expenditure however witnessed a decrease of 13.21.

In addition, the other personal services also decreased by 18.24 percent, out of which religious and other travel services witnessed decline 94.19 and 18.10 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, the exports of business services also dipped by 71.28 percent, from US $2.890 million to US $0.830 million, the PBS data revealed.

It is pertinent to mention here that the services trade deficit of the country during the first half of financial year (2020-21) decreased by 42.41 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

During the period from July-December, 2020-21, services exports increased by 0.31 percent, whereas imports reduced by 15.68 percent, according the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The services worth US $2.844 billion exported during the period under review as compared the exports of US $2.835 billion in same period of last year, whereas imports of services into the country was recorded at US $3.821 billion as against the imports of US $4.532 billion, the data revealed.