ISLAMABAD, May 09 (DNA):The country’s services trade deficit witnessed reduction of 30.01 percent during the first three quarters of the current financial year as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

During the period under review country’s services exports declined by 6.98%, whereas services’ imports narrowed by 16.96%, according the trade statistics of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). During the period from July-March (2019-2020), the exports reached to US $ 4.247 billion against the exports of US $ 4.566 billion during the same period of last year, it added.

Meanwhile, the services imports witnessed decrease of 16.96 % and went down from US $ 8.053 billion in first eight months to US $ 6.688 billion of the same period of current financial year, it said. Based on the figures, the services trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at US $ 2.441 billion against the deficit of US $ 3.487 during last year, showing decline of 30.01%.

On year-on-year basis, the exports from the country decreased by 17.11% during March 2020 as against the exports same month of last year. The exports during March 2020 were recorded at US $ 449.04 million against the exports of

US $ 541.75 million in March 2019.

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