Raza Khan ISLAMABAD, June 02 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan’s services exports reached $5.789 billion during the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2021-22 at a growth rate of 18%, the ministry of commerce reported. According to data shared with WealthPK by the ministry of commerce, exports of IT, business services, government goods and services and travel and transport sectors were the major contributors to the services exports during the period. Pakistan’s services exports were recorded at $4.897 billion during the same period of last fiscal year 2020-21. Services exports in April 2022 increased by 27% to $627 million from $493 million during the corresponding month of 2021. Kousar Ali Zaidi, Director General (Services) in the Ministry of Commerce, told WealthPk that country’s services exports had increased significantly in recent months. He said that Pakistan had already achieved 77.18% of the annual services exports target during July-April period, which was satisfactory progress. Zaidi said that an increasing trend in services exports had been observed so far in 2021-22, which was a positive indication. “Activities in IT and e-commerce sectors are booming after the Covid-19 pandemic,” the DG services added. According to the data, with the increase of 29%, IT exports has major contribution to services exports with export volume reaching $2.198 billion during July-April 2021-22. IT exports were recorded at $1.7 billion during the same months of last fiscal year. With the increase of 15%, business services exports clocked in at $1.356 billion during first 10 months of current fiscal year against the volume of $1.181 billion during the corresponding period of last year. Exports of government goods and services were recorded at $920 million during the period under review against $848 million in the corresponding months of last year, with a growth of 8%. Transport sector contributed $635 million in July-April against $441 during the same months of last fiscal, posting a growth of 35%. Exports of travel sector were recorded at $463 million during the period under review against $426 million in the same period last year, the ministry of commerce reported. Export volume of construction sector, however, declined by 7% to $83 million in July-April 2021-22 from $89 million during the same period of last fiscal year. Exports of insurance and pension and financial services dropped by 14% and 37%, respectively, during the period under review. In the month-wise comparison, IT exports rose to $249 million in April this year from $193 million in the corresponding month of last year, with an addition of 29%. With a massive growth of 138%, exports of transport services reached $69 million during the period under review against $29 million in the same month of last year. Similarly, government goods and services, business services and travel services surged by 22%, 11% and 5%, respectively, during April this year as compared to the same month of last year. Pakistan’s total services exports were recorded at $5.937 billion during last fiscal year (2020-21) with an increase of 9.19% over the preceding year of 2019-20.