IT exports have been witnessing a recovery over the past 5 months of FY24. Total IT exports for 9MFY24 stood at almost $2.6 billion – the same level as the full year IT exports for FY23. SBP’s data shows that during the first 10 months of FY24, IT exports were up by 21 percent year-on-year. A robust growth trend was also witnessed in Net IT exports (IT exports minus imports), where the tally jumped by 20 percent year-on-year.
Monthly, IT exports that include telecommunication and IT have been growing consecutively since October 2023. The IT exports for December 2023 were the highest ever monthly exports with a tally of $303 million. However, as per the latest data by the State Bank of Pakistan, the IT exports slipped from the highest to $265 million in Jan-24, and to $257 in Feb-24 by a minor 3 percent month-on-month. Nonetheless, IT exports for Feb-24 surged by 32 percent on a year-on-year basis and remained higher than the last 12-month average of $227 million. Then in March-24, IT exports touched the highest ever monthly tally followed by April-24 that surpassed it and posted IT export of $310 million – now the highest monthly exports for Pakistan.
The share of IT exports in total goods and service exports has risen from 4 percent in FY19 to almost 8 percent in FY24 so far. Segment-wise, the year-on-year growth during 10MFY24 was led by the Computer Services sector, which also represents 80 percent of the total proceeds, followed by the Telcom sector.
The government has given another forecast for IT exports - they are targeted to reach 25 billion dollars by 2029. That’s over eight times the increase from $2.6 billion IT export remittances received in FY23. Though IT exports have crossed FY23 levels in 10MFY24, reaching $3.5 billion target is still less likely. According to a research note by Arif Habib Limited, IT exports are set to close in the region of $3.1-3.2 billion for FY24.
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