Karachi:
Pakistan is on the path of economic recovery, rapid growth in remittances, decline in imports and moderate growth in exports have turned the current account into a surplus.
According to the statistics of the State Bank, the surplus value of the current account in November was at the highest level of February 2015 (nine years and eight months). The current account surplus is at a historic high.
In February 2015, the current account was in surplus of $800 million, in the first five months of this fiscal year, the current account was in surplus of $944 million, in the same period of fiscal year 2023-24, the current account faced a deficit of $1.67 billion. Remittances from overseas Pakistanis played an important role in reducing the current account deficit.
Remittances in the first five months of the last financial year were 11 billion dollars and in the current financial year they were 14 billion 76 billion dollars, which played an important role in limiting the impact of the deficit in trade in goods and services.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Shankar Talreja, director of research at Topline Securities, said that the surplus stood at $729 million in November, a 15-year high, while this was a 111% increase on a month-on-month basis, leading to the current fiscal year. The surplus for the first 5 months has been 944 million dollars.
While a deficit of 1.67 billion dollars was recorded during the same period of the previous financial year, it is noteworthy that in November trade deficit decreased by 14 percent, services deficit by 43 percent and primary deficit by 7 percent. has been done, which shows economic stability.
He said that there are several reasons for the increase in surplus, such as rapid increase in remittances, decrease in imports, moderate increase in exports.
The $729 million surplus is the first largest since February 2015 and the second largest since July 2013, said Sana Tawfiq, head of research at Arif Habib Ltd. It has been 2.9 billion dollars with a percentage increase.
While exports have played a moderate role, exports of goods have increased by 7 percent on an annual basis and exports of services by 8 percent, on the other hand, imports of goods have declined by 24 percent on an annual basis, with a month-on-month decline. But 2 percent in the import of machinery, 4 percent in the import of foodstuffs, and 29 percent in the import of petroleum products have been recorded. Global commodity prices have fallen,
