KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has reported that due to inflows of foreign exchange and drop in import bill, the country’s current account deficit further decreased in third consecutive month to $1.456 billion during July to March 2015.
According to SBP statistics, the balance of payment showed surplus of $163 million in March 2015 including $961 million during January to March. The current account deficit narrowed from $2.5 billion to $2.3 billion in January and to $1.61 billion in February 2015 and to $1.456 billion in March.
The balance of payment situation is comparatively better than in corresponding period of last financial year, which was more than 46 percent or $1.236 billion to stand at $2.692 billion. The trade deficit was seen quite controlled subsequently global oil prices impacted positively reaching to $12.753 billion in period of July to March of 2014-15 which was merely more than $273 million compared with last year’s similar period in which it stood at $12.480 billion.
Similarly, service trade deficit stood at $1.38 billion in nine months of financial year as compared with $2.129 billion. Remittance inflows, which are consistently improving every months have contributed significantly to narrow down current account deficit as it continued to show double digit growth of 15 percent totalling $13.3 billion by end of third quarter of FY15 compared with $11.548 billion in corresponding period of last financial year.
