July 17, 2019 (MLN): Pakistan’s current account deficit (CAD) for fiscal year 2019 has largely narrowed down by $6.3 billion to $13.6 billion, while last year’s deficit was recorded at $19.9 billion.

The cut down in import of goods during the year, had a large role to play in bringing down the overall CAD as it narrowed down the deficit in trade of goods by $3.6 billion or 11.3% over the year, bringing it to $28.2 billion from $31.8 billion.

On the other hand, the deficit in trade of services declined by 29.7% or $1.8 billion, thus logging in at $4.3 billion instead of $6 billion last year.

The overall balance on secondary income however jumped by 5%, to $24.6 billion.

Apart from this, the financial account balance slipped by 14.5%, from $14.3 billion to $12.2 billion.

Within the financial account, portfolio investments during the year has increased to $1.3 billion compared to last year’s divestment of $2.3 billion.

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