KARACHI: The current account balance of the country has posted surplus of $959 million during first nine months (July – March) of 2020/2021 as compared with a deficit of $4.14 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year, according to data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday.
Due to high import volume balance of trade in goods registered a deficit of $18.65 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year as compared with deficit of $15.85 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.
However, the current account deficit on trade in services narrowed to $1.36 billion during July – March of the current fiscal year as compared with the deficit of $2.86 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The deficit in balance of primary income also narrowed to $3.59 billion during the period under review as compared with the deficit of $4.13 billion during first nine months of the last fiscal year.
The major component that helped a surplus current account is worker remittances received by the central bank during the period under review. The inflows of workers’ remittances were at $21.46 billion during July – March 2020/2021 as compared with $17 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The balance of payment posted a current account deficit of $4.44 billion for the fiscal year 2019/2020 and a deficit of $13.43 billion for the fiscal year 2018/2019.