Pakistan: Services exports rise on back of IT boom
Pakistan’s services exports rose by 18.78 per cent in the first seven months of 2025-26 compared with the same period last year, mainly driven by higher earnings from information technology.
The performance contrasts with commodity exports, which have shown mixed trends, as the services sector has experienced continuous growth since the beginning of FY26.
According to data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the export of services reached $5.66 billion in July-January FY26, up from $4.76bn a year earlier.
Monthly data indicated that services exports rose by 18.27pc year-on-year in July, followed by increases of 8.41pc in August, 14.85pc in September, 17.61pc in October, 22.26pc in November, 15.94pc in December, and 31.12pc in January.
The growth in services exports is primarily driven by telecommunication, computer, and information services since July FY26, compared to the previous year. In rupee terms, exports increased by 20.22pc to Rs1.593 trillion in 7MFY26 from Rs1.325 trillion in FY25. This clearly indicates that service exports are steadily rising in the current fiscal year.
In January, services exports reached $885.09 million, up from $675.03 million in the same month last year, marking a growth of 31.12pc. On a month-on-month basis, services exports declined by 6.34pc.
In FY25, Pakistan’s services exports grew by 9.23pc to $8.39bn from $7.68bn in the same period last year. Service exports have been on the rise since February 2024, mainly due to a surge in information technology and other business exports.
However, there was a 6.50pc decline in August 2024.
According to data from the State Bank of Pakistan, exports of telecommunications, computer, and information services reached $2.61bn in July-January FY26, up 19.72pc from $2.18bn in the same months last year.
Reference Link:- https://www.dawn.com/news/1978497
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
