KARACHI: Pakistan’s current account deficit narrowed by 72 percent during first seven months (July – January) of 2019/2020 owing to inflows of workers’ remittances and decline in import bill.
The current account deficit reduced to $2.65 billion during the first seven months of current fiscal year as compared with $9.48 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year, according to Balance of Payment (BoP) data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday.
The decline in current account deficit may be attributed to shrinking trade deficit.
According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) the trade deficit was reduced by 28 percent to $13.84 billion during July – January 2019/2020 as compared with $19.2 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The import bill fell by 15.64 percent to $27.35 billion during first seven months of the current fiscal year as compared with $32.42 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The exports showed 2.2 percent growth to $13.5 billion during July – January 2019/2020 as compared with $13.21 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.
The inflows of workers’ remittances increased by 4.1 percent to $13.3 billion during first seven months of the current fiscal year as compared with $12.77 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.