The current account deficit of the country shrunk to negative $159 million in July, the first month of the current fiscal year compared to negative $820 million in the same period last year, according to the data of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released on Thursday.
However, the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has gone up by $2.013 billion to $25.112 billion in July 2015 or current fiscal year, which is around 8.7 percent higher compared to $23.099 billion in July 2014. The current account percent of GDP is still in negative 0.6 percent compared to negative 3.5 percent in July 2014, the SBP data said..
However, the SBP report said that the current account was surplus to $730 million in January-March this year, but it started sliding to negative $534 in April-June 2015.
If compared on month-on-month basis, this deficit was stood at $820 million in July 2014, but the inflows from International Monetary Fund (IMF) and US Support Funds supported the current account of Pakistan in first month of the current fiscal year.
In the first month, the trade balance has also come down to negative $1.794 billion, shrinking by 37 percent compared to last year July figures of negative $2,112 billion. The export of the country remained at $1.760 billion while imports stood at $3.554 billion.
Services exports of the country enhanced to $681 million in the first month, while services imports declined to $591 million, which were stood at $351 million and $734 million in July 2014 respectively, the data said.
In July 2015, the country received an amount of $1.664 billion in the head of remittances, which was stood at $1.659 billion in the same period last year.
The country’s reserves stood at $18.655 billion this week, in which SBP’ reserves stood at $13.615 billion, while banks (other than SBP) reserves are at $5.039 billion.