Current Account Deficit narrows 72% to $2.65b in 7 months
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Current Account Deficit narrowed to 72 percent as it fell to $2.654 billion in first seven months (Jul-Jan) of the year 2019-20 as compared to deficit of $9.48 billion in same period, a year ago.
On year-on-year basis the current account deficit also declined by 36 percent to $555 million in January 2020 compared to $865 million in the same month of the previous year, State Bank of Pakistan reported on Wednesday.
The details show that Current Account Balance without official transfers shrank to $2.9 billion in the corresponding period against $9.9 billion in the same period of last year, showing a decline of 70 percent.
Balance of trade in goods also plunged by 36.55 percent from $18.353 billion in July-January 2018-19 to $11.644 billion in July-January this year.
Similarly, balance of trade in services also narrowed by 17 percent to $1.9 billion compared to $2.38 billion.
Workers’ remittances in July-January 2019-20 also increased to $13.3 billion in seven months as compared to remittances of $12.773 billion recorded during same period of last year.
As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), the current account deficit narrowed by 1.6 percent in the first seven months of 2019-20 as opposed to 5.5 percent in the same period of last year. - APP