May 17, 2024 (MLN): Pakistan has recorded a current account surplus of $491 million, the latest data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) revealed today.
Last month, the country recorded a current account surplus of $434m, while in April, 2023 the current account surplus stood at $134m.
Meanwhile, on a cumulative basis, the current account deficit in 10MFY24 was recorded at $202m, showing an improvement of 94.8% YoY when compared to the deficit of $3.92bn in 10MFY23.
Total exports rose by 22.0% YoY to $3.28bn compared to $2.69bn in the same month of last year, while rose by 1.6% MoM as against the exports of $3.23bn in the previous month.
Total imports rose by 21.5% YoY and fell by 2.7% MoM to $5.28bn as compared to the imports worth $4.35bn recorded in April of last year and $5.42bn recorded in March.
Accordingly, the trade deficit in goods and services rose 20.6% YoY to $2bn. On a monthly basis, it narrowed 9.0%.
Breaking up the data, the trade deficit in goods was $1.81bn, up 21.9% YoY and down 11.3% MoM.
This was on the back of a 23.4% YoY rise in exports and a 22.8% YoY rise in imports.
Furthermore, the trade deficit in services was $187m, up 9.4% YoY compared to a deficit of $171m a year earlier, while it rose 22.2% MoM compared to a deficit of $153m a month earlier.
The data further details that the workers' remittances in April increased by 27.9% YoY to $2.81bn as against $2.2bn in April 2023; while on a monthly basis, the remittances went down by 4.8% MoM as compared to $2.95bn in the previous month.
Cumulatively in 10MFY24, workers' remittances were recorded at $23.85bn as compared to $23.04bn in 10MFY23, depicting a rise of 3.5% YoY.
