ISLAMABAD: In the first seven months of the current fiscal year (July 2022-January 2023), the information technology and IT-enabled services (ITeS) industry received $1.523 billion in export remittances, an increase of 2.35 percent year-over-year.
The sector had received $1.488 billion in information and communication technology (ICT) export proceeds during the comparable period of the previous year.
The IT ministry said in a statement on Monday that “IT exports grew despite the persistent ease of doing business challenges and an increase in cost of doing business.” ICT export remittances increased by 2.15 percent in January 2023 alone, reaching $190 million, compared to $186 million in January 2022.
The IT ministry noted that the IT and ITeS industry generated a trade surplus of $1.344 billion in FY23, or 88.25 percent of the total ICT export remittances, easing the country’s foreign currency crunch.
When compared to the surplus of $1.117 billion that was recorded during the same time period in FY22, the trade surplus was higher by 20.32 percent.
The ICT sector’s exports of $1.523 billion are the highest of all services (36.3% of the total export of services), according to ministry data, with “other business services” coming in second with $942 million. Between July 2022 and January 2023, the services sector incurred a total trade deficit of $301 million.
Contrary to this, ICT services had the highest trade surplus of any service, at $1.344 billion. With a surplus of $267 million, other business services came in second.
Only the textile group had a larger trade surplus than the ICT sector, at $7.566 billion between July 2022 and January 2023, up 6.8% from the $7.084 billion surplus during the same time period in FY22.
The textile industry exported $10.330 billion in total between July and January of FY23, a slight increase of 0.16 percent from the $10.314 billion it exported during the same time last year.
