Pakistan reports 4th successive monthly current account surplus in June

Pakistan’s current account posted a surplus for the fourth successive month, clocking in at $334 million in June 2023.

According to the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday, the current account balance posted a surplus of $334 million for the month of June compared to a deficit of $2.32 billion during the same period of the previous year.

This is the fourth consecutive current account surplus on a monthly basis, starting March 2023.

“On a YoY basis, the primary reason behind the surplus was a 55% YoY decline in total imports along with a 29% YoY decrease in exports,” said brokerage house Arif Habib Limited (AHL) in a note. “Moreover, remittances decreased by 22% YoY,” it added.

As per the central bank data, the country’s exports increased to $2.698 billion in June 2023 against total goods and services export of $3.794 billion in June 2022.

On the other hand, total imports stood at $3.847 billion in June 2023 against $8.533 billion in the same period last year.

Yearly account

Meanwhile, the country’s current account deficit fell sharply, i.e. 85.37% during the 12 months of the fiscal year 2022-23 supported by lower import bill.

Pakistan posted a $2.557 billion current account deficit during July-June of FY23 compared to $17.481 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year (FY22), a decline of $14.93 billion.

During the period under review, the country’s import bill stood at $60 billion down from $84.49 billion due to regulatory steps to curb the imports to reduce the pressure on external accounts, reflecting a decline of nearly 29%.

The country’s exports also presented poor performance as overall exports plunged by 11% to $35.2 billion in July-June of FY23 as against $39.6 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.