The country's current account balance posted a $164 million surplus in February 2014, mainly due to rising foreign inflows. Economists said the surplus CA balance is a positive sign for the economy as the country's forex reserves are under pressure due to rising debt payments and higher current account. They said the persistent decline in CA deficit would help build depleting foreign exchange reserves.
According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the country's current account balance posted a $164 million surplus in February 2014 compared to $427 million deficit in January 2014. This is the third surplus during this fiscal year as previously in July 2013 and January 2014 current account was in surplus.
However, year-on-year basis, the country's CA balance posted a deficit of $2.02 billion during first eight months of this fiscal year (FY14) compared to a deficit of $831 million in the same period of last fiscal year (FY13), depicting an increase of 143 percent or $1.189 billion. During the period under review overall deficit of trade, services and income sector stood at $15.039 billion against current account transfers of $13.019 billion.
The country's overall goods imports posted a trade deficit of $10.837 billion with $27.607 billion imports and $16.770 billion exports in July-February of FY14. Services sector deficit surged to $1.731 billion with $3.38 billion exports and $5.11 billion imports in first eight months of current fiscal year compared to a deficit of $527 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal year. Similarly, during the period under review with a deficit of $2.471 billion, income sector outflows stood at $2.823 billion and inflows at $352 million.
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