Through providing different travel services in various countries, Pakistan earned US $633.198 million during the ten months of the fiscal year 2023-24. According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), this shows a decrease of 27.61 per cent as compared to the US $874.700 million worth same services provided during the corresponding months of the last fiscal year 2022-23. During the months under review, personal travel services also decreased by 28.08 per cent, from US $868.020 million last year to US $624.278 million during July-April 2023-24. Among these personal services, the exports of health-related expenditure rose by 255.59 per cent while the education-related expenditure increased by 98.97 per cent.

In addition, the other personal services witnessed a decline of 30.71 per cent. Meanwhile, the exports of business services grew by 33.53 per cent, from US$ 6.680 million to US$ 8.920 million, the PBS data revealed. It is pertinent to mention here that the exports of services during July-April 2023-24 were recorded at US$ 6.441 billion against the exports of US$ 6.366 billion in July-January 2022-23, showing an increase of 1.18 per cent. The imports of the country surged by 20.77 per cent, growing from US$ 6,912 billion last year to US$ 8.347 billion during the months under review.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan