KARACHI: Pakistan’s current account deficit stood at $1.364 billion during the first 10 months of this fiscal year, a considerably low figure compared to $2.931bn in the same period last year, the State Bank reported on Monday.

A surplus of $275m in April helped reduce the size of deficit in July-April 2014-15. However, despite high remittances and inflows from donors, which pushed the forex reserves near $18bn, the country failed to wipe out the current account deficit from its balance sheet.

During the period under review, the country’s imports rose to $34bn despite substantial reduction in the oil bill due to record fall in the international oil prices. However, exports fell to $20.2bn from $20.8bn last year. Trade deficit, as a result, swelled to $13.8bn during July-April FY15.

Analysts and experts have been identifying the current account deficit as one of the key negative indicators for the country. They say the existence of deficit despite high reserves of around $18bn suggests instability on the external front of the economy.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2015

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