By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has spent US $ 901.835 million by acquiring different travel services from various countries during the first seven months of current financial year 2019-20.
This shows growth of 7.11 percent as compared to US $ 841.990 million spent through provision of services during the last year (2018-19), Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported. During the period under review, the imports of personal travel services grew by 9.53 percent, by going up from US $ 809.620 million last year to US $ 886.745 million during July-January (2019-20).
Among these personal services, imports of health related expenditure and education expenditure decreased by 54.35 percent and 4.01 percent respectively. In addition, import of other personal services were increased by 10.91 percent, out of which religious services witnessed growth of 124.86 percent whereas the imports other services decreased by 11.06 percent.
On the other hand, imports of business services witness declined of 53.38 percent, by going down from US $32.370 million to US $15.090 million, the PBS data revealed. It is pertinent to mention here that the services trade deficit of the country during first eight months of current financial year decreased by 10.16 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
During the period from July-February, 2019-20, services exports grew by 5.55 percent, whereas imports reduced by 1.19 percent, according the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
