KARACHI: Current account deficit has narrowed by 73 percent to $1.82 billion during first five months (July – November) of 2019/2020 owing to reduction in import bill and improved inflows.
Adviser to Prime Minister on Revenue Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in a tweet said “Current Account Deficit is down by 72.6% in Nov 2019 & 73% between July -Nov 2019 vs same period in 2018. In 5 months, increase in SBP reserves by $1.8b and reduction of Rs3b in FX swaps/forward liabilities increased FX buffer by $4.8b providing further stability to external account.
According to statistics of Balance of Payment (BoP) released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday the current account deficit reduced to $1.82 billion during first five months of current fiscal year as compared with the deficit of $6.733 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The trade deficit shrank by 33 percent to $9.668 billion during first five months of current fiscal year as compared with the deficit of $14.44 billion.
The import bill of the country fell by 18.41 percent to $19.21 billion during first five months of current fiscal year as compared with $23.55 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The exports of the country increased by five percent to $9.54 billion during July – November 2019/2020 as compared with $9.1 billion in corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The inflows of workers’ remittances increased to $9.298 billion during first five months of current fiscal year as compared with $9.281 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.
The current account deficit during first five months is 1.6 percent of the GDP as it was 5.3 percent of the GDP in the same period of the last fiscal year.
The current account deficit was $13.83 billion in fiscal year 2018/2019 and it was 4.9 percent of the GDP.
