Pakistan IT exports push services exports up 22.6% to $2.72bn
Pakistan's services exports rose 22.6% to $2.72 billion in July to September, led by IT and freelance earnings of $1.25 billion. Here is what the numbers show.
Pakistan earned $2.72 billion from exporting services in the first three months of this financial year, July to September 2026, up 22.6% from $2.22 billion a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The biggest driver was IT: software, computer services and freelance work.
The IT numbers
Telecommunications, computer and information services, the category that covers software houses, IT firms and much of the freelance income, brought in $1.246 billion in the quarter, up 17.7% from $1.059 billion, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). That is close to half of all services exports.
September alone was strong. IT exports reached $435 million, up about 18% on September last year and the highest monthly figure in nine months.
Other business services, which include consultancy, call centres and back-office work, grew even faster, by 28% to $622 million. Transport services rose almost 10% to $295 million.
The other side of the ledger
Imports of services grew too, by 16.3% to $3.55 billion in the quarter. So Pakistan still spends more on foreign services, such as shipping, travel and software licences, than it earns. The services trade deficit for the quarter was $832 million, almost exactly the same as a year earlier.
The September deficit was the weak spot: imports jumped 26% that month, pushing the monthly gap up to $283 million, about 84% higher than last September.
For comparison, goods exports grew 7.6% to $8.45 billion in the same quarter, so services are growing about three times faster than the textiles and rice that still make up most of what Pakistan sells abroad.
Why it matters
Every dollar a freelancer or software house brings home supports the rupee and the country’s thin foreign exchange reserves without the import bill that comes with manufacturing. Last financial year, services exports reached $10.04 billion, up almost 19%.
The government’s target under its Uraan Pakistan plan is $10 billion a year from IT exports alone by FY29. At the current pace of about $1.25 billion a quarter, IT earnings would need to roughly double in less than three years.
The October figures, due from the SBP in the middle of this month, will show whether the September jump carried on. This is information, not investment advice.
