November 19, 2020 (MLN): Pakistan has posted a current account surplus of USD 382 million in October 2020, taking the FY21 CA surplus to USD 1.16 billion.
According to figures released by the State bank of Pakistan, in the corresponding period of FY20 Pakistan’ Current account had shown a deficit of USD 1.419 billion.
This is the fourth straight month the country has posted a surplus on the back of strong exports and remittances.
In the month of October’20, the current account surplus was 6.47x higher than the surplus recorded in the previous month and 5.2x higher than that of recorded in October 2019.
Going into details released by SBP, the exports of goods increased by 1% MoM to $1.96 billion in October while imports declined by 9% MoM to $3.46 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $1.497 billion. During 4MFY21, the trade deficit was recorded at $6.748 billion compared to a deficit of $6.489 billion during 4MFY20, showing that the deficit worsened by 4% YoY.
The trade deficit in services during October’20 stood at $239 million, showing an upsurge of 185% MoM as a result of a decrease in export services by 12% MoM, while imports of services also increased by 18% MoM.
On a cumulative basis, the trade deficit in services improved by 38% to clock in at $785 million during Jul-Oct FY21 when compared to a deficit of $1.27 billion in Jul-Oct FY20 as imports of services plunged by 22% YoY and exports by 11% YoY during the period.
According to the figures provided by SBP, worker remittances in the first 4 months of FY21 improved substantially by 27% YoY to $9.43 billion from $7.453 billion in the corresponding period of FY20. In the month of October alone, remittances grew by 14% YoY to $2.284 billion. whereas, on monthly basis it did not depict any change.
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