ISLAMABAD, Sept 11: The services sector export is up by 18.93 per cent during the first month (July) of the current fiscal year over the corresponding month of last year, suggested data of federal bureau of statistics (FBS) here on Thursday.

Higher growth in services export proceeds was recorded mainly because of transportation, communication, construction, business and royalties and license fees.

An official source said that the liberalisation of services sector would help further increasing the exports from the sector during the months ahead.

An agreement on the services sector was also under consideration with the Chinese government to be made part of the operational Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

However, the export of services declined by 13.3 per cent to $3.589 billion in the year 2007-08 as against $4.140 billion of the previous year.

There are four ways or modes of supply of trade in services --mode-1 or cross border, mode-2 or consumption abroad, mode-3 or commercial presence and mode-4 or temporary movement (presence of natural person under the General Agreement on Trade in Services).

On the other hand, Pakistan has opened up its market for foreign services providers, particularly in the banking, insurance, telecommunication, retail and some other sectors, which were flooded by foreign services providers.

Statistics showed that import of services declined by 10.23 per cent to $690.725 million in July 2008 as against $769.442 million over the same month last year. Due to this decline in import of services, the deficit in the services sector has also declined by 22.01 per cent to $427.515 million during the month under review as against $548.134 million over the corresponding month of last year.

The services imports, which declined, include -- transportation, financial services, royalties and personal, culture services during the period under review this year over last year.

Statistics showed that an increase of 19.04 per cent recorded as services imports climbed to $9.892 billion in the year 2007-08 as against $8.310 billion over the previous year.

Due to this increase in imports, the deficit soared by 51.14 per cent to $6.302 billion in the year 2007-08 against $4.169 billion over the previous year.