Pakistan’s Service Exports Grow 6.51% to $676 Million in November 2024
Pakistan’s services exports increased by 6.51% to $675.69 million during November 2024 compared with the $634.39 million recorded in November 2023.
This upward trend since February 2024 is mainly caused by solid growth in information technology exports except for the 6.5% fall in August 2024.
Measuring the service exports in Pakistani rupees, service exports have gone up by 3.63 percent to Rs 187.713 billion in November 2024 compared with Rs 181.131 billion during the same month last year. Service exports went up by 7.58 percent for the first five months of the current fiscal year from $3.04 billion in the previous year to $3.27 billion this year.
In FY24, service exports grew by 2.77% to $7.8 billion compared to the previous year of $7.59 billion.
Pakistan has become the world’s second-largest country for freelancers, and IT products and services are exported to more than 170 countries worldwide. A new system has also been launched to facilitate easy bank account opening and retaining more money in foreign currency accounts for freelancers.
The government has been very ambitious, with a goal of $15 billion in exports over the next five years in IT. As a facilitative measure, State Bank of Pakistan increased the retention limit in the Exporters’ Specialised Foreign Currency Accounts to 50% from 35%. This would attract IT exports back to the country, making it possible for overall export figures to rise significantly.
It has also made life easy for the IT companies to do business and bring back their earnings with a stable exchange rate.
At the same time, imports of services rose 4.60% to $828.56 million in November 2024. Service imports grew 2.88% from July to November 2024, at $4.43 billion against $4.30 billion for the same period last year. In FY24, service imports jumped 17.14%, totaling $10.12 billion against $8.64 billion in the previous year.
Import shipments increased, but the service trade deficit declined by 8.48% to $1.15 billion during July to November 2024 compared with the corresponding period last year at $1.25 billion. Notably, however, during November 2024, the trade deficit in services increased by 3.10% to $152.87 million compared with a trade deficit of $157.76 million in November 2023.
This growth in service exports, especially in IT, has underlined the growing role of Pakistan in the global service sector and the positive impact of recent government policies.
