Pakistan earns US $224m from export of travel services in 1st half of fiscal year 2020-21

Pakistan earned US $224.120 million by providing different travel services in various countries during the first half of the current financial year 2020-21.

This shows a decline of 18.54 percent as compared to US $275.114 million same services were provided during the corresponding period of the fiscal year 2019-20, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.

During the period under review, the personal travel services decreased by 17.98 percent, from US $272.224 million last year to US $223.290 million during July-December (2020-21).

Among these personal services, the exports of personal expenditure however rose by 44.26 percent while the education-related expenditure however witnessed a decrease of 13.21.

In addition, the other personal services also decreased by 18.24 percent, out of which religious and other travel services witnessed a decline 94.19 and 18.10 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, the exports of business services also dipped by 71.28 percent, from the US $2.890 million to US $0.830 million, the PBS data revealed.

It is pertinent to mention here that the services trade deficit of the country during the first half of the financial year (2020-21) decreased by 42.41 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

During the period from July-December, 2020-21, services exports increased by 0.31 percent, whereas imports reduced by 15.68 percent, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The services worth US $2.844 billion exported during the period under review as compared the exports of US $2.835 billion in same period of last year, whereas imports of services into the country was recorded at US $3.821 billion as against the imports of US $4.532 billion, the data revealed.