KARACHI: Pakistan’s current account was in surplus for the second time in a row and the third time overall in the month of March.
Current account was in surplus at $619 million in March, foreign direct investment rose 52 percent to a 21-month high of $258 million in March, while total foreign direct investment increased over the nine months. Volume was $1.09 billion, down 10 percent from the same period last year.
According to data released by the State Bank, the current account surplus stood at $619 million in March, which is an increase of 15 percent on an annual basis and 532 percent on a monthly basis.
CEO Topline Research Mohammad Sohail and Research Head Arif Habib Limited Tahir Abbas said in this regard that the current account surplus was due to the increase in remittances, which stood at a two-year high of $3 billion in March. While remittances were $2.25 billion in February, mainly due to extra remittances from overseas Pakistanis to their families due to Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.
It may be noted that the surplus of $619 million in March is the third highest surplus in Pakistan’s history, after $981 million in August 2012 and $801 million in February 2015.
According to the central bank, the overall current account deficit during July-March was 87% lower at $508 million, which was $4.05 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal year. An increase was recorded, which was 4.45 billion dollars against 4.16 billion dollars last year, while export of goods was 2.52 billion dollars with an increase of 4 percent.
Experts say that during the remaining three months, the government will be able to keep the current account deficit low, mainly because of the IMF program that the government is likely to receive, besides the central bank’s economic growth 2 It is expected to remain at 3%, in which agriculture plays a central role, this year, after rice and cotton, wheat has also had the best crops.
