Daily Times

The country’s current account balance (CAB) posted a cumulative surplus of $805 million during the first two months of the ongoing fiscal year, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) revealed on Wednesday.

The central bank said the current account remained in a surplus in August for the second consecutive month, due to “an impressive growth in workers’ remittances and lower import payment.”

The current account surplus rose to $508 million and $296 million in July and August 2020, respectively.

Cumulatively, the CAB reached a surplus of $805 million during July-August FY2020-21 as against a deficit of $1.2 billion in the same period last year. “Efforts to attract workers’ remittances, flexible exchange rate and relatively benign import prices explain the improving current account balance,” the SBP tweeted.

Meanwhile, Minister for Industries & Production Hammaz Azhar in a tweet on Wednesday said that Pakistan’s current account surpluses in post-Covid lockdowns are a good sign. “They bode well for our forex reserve levels and economic stability. Last fiscal year we reduced the current account deficit to around USD 3 billion. We inherited this figure at USD 20 billion,” he further said.

On September 14, the SBP had said remittances from overseas Pakistanis rose by 24.4 percent to $2.095 billion during August as compared to last year’s corresponding period. According to figures released by the central bank, remittances reached an unprecedented level of $7.3 billion over the last three months, which are 37.2 percent higher than the same period last year.