KARACHI: Pakistan’s current account continued to perform well and posted a record surplus in February 2026, mainly due to lower import bill and healthy workers’ remittances.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday reported that the country’s current account posted a surplus of USD 427 million in February 2026 compared to USD 85 million deficit in February 2025. This also marks the second consecutive monthly surplus, following a USD 60 million surplus in January 26, signalling continued improvement in Pakistan’s external sector.
Khurram Schehzad Advisor to the finance minister termed this current account surplus the largest in the last one year. “Pakistan records its largest current account surplus of 2026, posting a USD 427 million surplus in Feb2026, the highest since March 2025, in which the country recorded a surplus of USD 1.28 billion,” he informed.
He said that the back-to-back surpluses reflect strong remittance inflows, improving value-added exports, and disciplined imports (growth-driven), strengthening macroeconomic stability and easing pressure on external financing.
Khurram said that though challenges exist given the regional conflict; however, Pakistan’s stabilised external account with adequate buffers is a key milestone for sustainable economic recovery and investor confidence.
The two surpluses in the past two months, cumulatively, contain the current account deficit at USD 700 million during July-Feb of FY26, compared with a surplus of USD 479 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year (FY25). The seven months (July-Jan) deficit was USD 1.1 billion.
The details analysis revealed that during the first eight months of this fiscal year, Pakistan’s current account has shown a mixed trend with current account recorded surpluses in four months and deficits in four.
The account posted a deficit of USD 254 million in July 2025, which widened to USD 325 million in August before turning into a surplus of USD 100 million in September. It slipped back into a deficit of USD 291 million in October, recovered to a surplus of USD 98 million in November, and again moved into a deficit of USD 265 million in December. In January 2026, Pakistan posted USD 60 million deficit.
Going forward, SBP said that the external environment has become more challenging due to the ongoing Middle East conflict. However, the current account deficit is likely to remain within the earlier projected range of 0-1 percent of GDP in FY26.
SBP, in recent monetary policy statement, has also emphasised on the timely realisation of planned official inflows to achieve the targeted build-up in SBP’s FX reserves to USD 18 billion by June 2026.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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