Current account deficit balloons to $7 billion in five months

KARACHI: Pakistan’s current account deficit has ballooned to $7 billion during the first five months (July-November 2021/22 on sharp growth in import bill during the period, according to the balance of payments data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday.

The current account posted a surplus of $1.87 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year, it added.

Pakistan’s import bill sharply grew 69.57 per cent to $33 billion during the first five months of the current fiscal year, compared with $19.46 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) revealed.

Meanwhile, the exports of the country posted a growth of 27 per cent to $12.36 billion during the first five months of the current fiscal year, compared with $9.74 billion in the same months of the last fiscal year.

The trade deficit widened 112 per cent to $20.65 billion during the period under review, compared with the deficit of $9.72 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.

The inflows of remittances registered a growth of 9.7 per cent to $12.9 billion during the first five months of the current fiscal year, compared with $11.76 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.

The current account deficit to the GDP already shot up to 5.3 per cent in the first five months of the current fiscal year.

The current account deficit was recorded at $1.91 billion for November 2021, compared with a surplus of $563 million in the same month of the last fiscal year.

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