- IT exports surge to 12-month high to $259m in Nov.
- Surge is due to relaxation of permissible retention limit.
- Computer services grow by 14% month-on-month.
KARACHI: Pakistan’s information technology (IT) exports surged by 9% month-on-month to $259 million in November, which is also the highest level in the past 12 months, The News reported on Friday.
According to brokerage firm Topline Securities, the jump is driven by a relaxation in the permissible retention limit by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), which allowed IT exporters to keep 50% of their foreign earnings in their specialised accounts, up from 35% previously.
A stable rupee also encouraged IT companies to repatriate their foreign income and deposit it in local accounts. Caretaker IT Minister Umar Saif said that IT companies had parked an estimated $1-2 billion outside of Pakistan, which could be brought back to boost the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
The IT export figure reflects the amount remitted back to Pakistan by technology companies, which provide services such as software development, web design, data processing, and call centres to clients worldwide.
Computer services, which accounted for 83% of the total IT exports in November 2023, grew by 14% month-on-month and 20% year-on-year, while telecom services, which made up 17%, declined by 11% month-on-month.
Other computer services, such as consulting, training, and maintenance, recorded the highest growth rate of 28% month-on-month, followed by the export of computer software, which increased by 14% month-on-month.
In the first five months of the fiscal year 2023-24 (July-November), IT exports rose by 6% year-on-year to $1.2 billion, representing 7.4% of the total exports of the country. Net IT exports, which deduct IT imports from IT exports, also increased by 11% month-on-month and 7% year-on-year to $226 million in November 2023.
On a trailing 12-month basis, net IT exports reached $2.4 billion, up by 10% year-on-year.
The IT sector is expected to benefit from the global and regional trends of increasing spending on software and IT services, as per a report by Gartner, a technology research and consulting firm.
Gartner projected that worldwide spending on software would grow by 13.8% and spending on IT services would increase by 10.4% in 2024.
MENA (Middle East and North Africa) software spending was forecast to record double-digit growth of 12.3% in 2024, followed by IT services spending growing at 11.1% next year, to accelerate digitalisation and automation in the region.
