KARACHI: The Pak Rupee gained 15 paisas against the dollar on Wednesday owing to a report of a surplus current account for the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
The rupee ended Rs162.13 to the dollar from the previous day’s closing of Rs162.28 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
Currency experts said that the positive sentiments prevailed during the day as a statement of balance of payment for the first quarter (July – September) 2020/2021 was issued earlier in the day.
Analysts at Arif Habib Limited said that after a gap of more than five years (3QFY15: USD 514 million), Pakistan posted a quarterly Current Account surplus of $792 million during 1QFY21 against a deficit of USD 1,492 million recorded in the same period last year.
This is the highest surplus after 1QFY04 (USD 1.1bn) – almost 17 years.
In the month of September 2020 alone, Current Account Balance (CAB) arrived at USD 73 million compared to a deficit of USD 278 million during September 2019.
August 2020 CAB has also been revised to USD 211 million from a surplus of USD 297 million.
The primary factors leading to the monthly surplus in September 2020 were: a 31 percent YoY (USD 544 million) rise in remittances along with a 5.4 percent YoY uptick in total exports mainly led by export of services (+30 percent MoM).
However, total imports also went up by 11.6 percent YoY (USD 452 million) during the same period.
