KARACHI: Pakistan’s current account deficit has narrowed to $3.1 billion during first five months (July – November) of fiscal year 2022-2023, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday.
The data of balance of payment (BoP) revealed that latest current account deficit narrowed by 57 per cent in the first five months of fiscal year 2022-2023 when compared with the deficit of $7.23 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
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The shrinking current account deficit may be attributed to sharp decline in trade deficit during the period under review.
According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the trade deficit reduced by 31 per cent to $14.27 billion during July – November of the current fiscal year as compared with the deficit of $20.62 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
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Import bill of the country recorded a decline of 20.5 per cent to $26.22 billion during first five months of the current fiscal year as compared with $33 billion in the same months of the last fiscal year.
However, exports have declined by 3.37 per cent to $11.94 billion during the period under review as compared with $12.36 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
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On the other hand, the inflows of workers remittances decreased by 9.6 per cent to $12 billion in first five months of the current fiscal year as compared with $13.28 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.
The current account deficit in the month of November 2022 recorded at $276 million when compared with the deficit of $569 million in October 2022 and $1.93 billion in November 2021.
It is worth mentioning that the current account deficit of the country recorded at $17.41 billion the last fiscal year 2021-2022.
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