ISLAMABAD, Mar 22 (APP): Pakistan’s current account deficit narrowed to $50 million in February 2021 as compared to the deficit of $210 million in January and $652 million in December 2020.
The current account balance in February 2020 witnessed a deficit of $197 million, according to a data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday.
On average, the current account remained in a surplus of $881 million during July-February (2020-21), against a deficit of $2,741 million during same period of FY20.
“Surplus in current account is helped by a continuous strong growth in workers’ remittances and a sustained recovery in exports since November 2020 in year-on-year terms, which more than offset increase in imports due to domestic food shortages and recovering economic activity”, the Central Bank said on its official Twitter account.
In February the oversees Pakistanis transferred remittances worth of $2.266 billion while in same month of last year the remittances were recorded at $1.825 billion.
According to the data, the Current Account Deficit without official transfers also narrowed to $71 million in February as compared to the deficit of $233 million in same month of last year.
The trade deficit in goods expanded from $1.57 billion in February 2020 and $2.336 billion in January 2021 to $2.35 billion in February this year.
The trade deficit in services however significantly narrowed to $186 million in the corresponding month as compare to the deficit of $407 million in February 2020 and $163 million in January 2021.
As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), the current account balance witnessed a deficit of 0.2 percent in February this year as opposed to deficit of 0.9 percent in the same period of last year.
