The country''s services trade deficit sharply declined by 30 percent during the last fiscal year (FY19) supported by lower imports. The country''s services sector trade statistics were very encouraging during the last fiscal year as services import bill fell by 16 percent while exports remained stable. Services trade posted deficit of $ 4.265 billion in July-June FY19 compared to $ 6.068 million in the same period of FY18, depicting a decline of 30 percent or $ 1.083 billion.
The sharp decline in the services deficit also supported the external account. Contractions in import payments for both goods and services and a decent growth in workers'' remittances were the primary factors behind lower current account deficit. These factors cumulatively offset the higher primary income deficit and a decline in export receipts during the last fiscal year. As a result, the current account deficit for FY19 declined by 32 percent to $ 13.587 billion.
The detailed analysis revealed that with 16 percent decline, overall services imports amounted to $ 9.55 billion in FY19 against $ 11.356 billion in FY18. During the period under review, services sector exports remained flat at $ 5.28 billion.
During the last fiscal year, the country earned $ 740 million on account of transportation services, $ 423 million from travel, $ 1.093 billion from communication, $ 56 million from construction services, $ 45 million from insurance sector, $ 90 million from financial sector and some $ 1.249 billion on account of government services.
Transportation payments stood at $ 3.647 billion, travel $ 1.586 billion, communication $ 441 million, other business services $ 2.457 billion, insurance $ 240 million, financial sector $ 160 million and government''s payments on account of services imports stood at $ 632 million during the period under review.
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