Daily Times

The Pakistan’s external Current Account Balance witnessed positive improvement for the consecutive third month in October 2024 as Current Account recorded a surplus of $349 million in the month while Current Account for the first four months of the financial year 2024-25 recorded as $ 218 million, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reported on Monday.

Cumulatively the current account balance for July to October 2024, according to the latest SBP data, has shown significant improvement as a surplus of $218 million was recorded during the first four months of FY 2024-25 as compared to the deficit of $1.528 billion during the corresponding period of last year.

“The external Current Account recorded a surplus of US$349 million in October 2024, after showing a surplus of US$86 million and US$29 million in September 2024 and August 2024 respectively,” said SBP adding that accumulative current account balance for July-October 2024-25 also turned into surplus after a deficit of $131 million in the first three months of the current fiscal year.

According to SBP figures, the merchandize trade deficit has declined on month-on-month as well as yearly basis during October 2024. The balance on trade in goods in October 24 has recorded a deficit of $1,586 million against the deficit of $ 2,061 million of September 2024 and $1,664 million in October 2023, the data shown.

Likewise, the services’ trade deficit was recorded at $261 million during October 24 as compared to the deficit of $258 million during September 2024 and $ 206 million in October 2023, the data shown adding that balance on trade in July October FY24-25 was recorded as $992 million against the $1,101 million deficit in trade in service during the corresponding period of last year.

The overall trade deficit in goods and services was recorded at $9,316 million during the first four months of the current fiscal year compared to the deficit of $,8,101 million during corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the balance on primary income recorded a deficit of $2,884 million during July-October 2024-25 against a deficit of $2,640 million of the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, the SBP data stated and added that Balance on Secondary Income during Jul-Oct 24-25 was recorded as $12,418 million against $9,213 million of same period of the previous fiscal year.