Pakistan’s information technology exports decreased by 2% year over year in December 2022, falling short of the government’s ambitious target of $15 billion in the next years.
The exports of computer services fell by 3%, which is principally responsible for the reduction. Analysts worry that the nation may fall short of its IT export goal for FY2022-23.
According to Khurram Schehzad, CEO of Alpha Beta Core, global factors and the broader recession both had an impact on Pakistan’s ICT exports in December.
In order to save expenses, tech organizations throughout the world are currently choosing to lay off employees. This trend, he predicted, will soon come to an end.
However, Nasheed Malik, an ICT analyst at Topline Research, said that IT exports rose by 6% MoM in December as a result of a 13% growth in computer services.
Software consulting and exports increased by 14% and 28% MoM, respectively, among IT services.
For the first time since April 2022, exports in December came very near to $250 million, while they fell short of the monthly high of $260 million established in March 2022, he said.
The slowdown has persisted since April 2022, with YoY growth from May to December 2022 averaging just 3%, as opposed to an average YoY growth of 26% over the preceding eight months, from September 2021 to April 2022.
Malik pointed out that the fall in IT exports reflected the impact of a global slow-down in IT spending and a widening gap between the inter-bank and open market currency exchange rates.
Pakistan’s IT ministry has set an export target of $5 billion for FY23.
