Pakistan’s current account deficit (CAD) has increased by a massive 81 per cent in August to $1,476 million compared to July during this fiscal year (FY22).
According to latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the CAD in July was $814m which was widened by $1,476m in August showing an increase of 81pc and a trend for growing deficit for the next 10 remaining months of the fiscal.
The total deficit during July-Aug reached $2.29 billion against a net surplus of 838m in the same period of FY21. August FY21 was also surplus with $255m against the deficit during the current fiscal year.
SBP Governor Reza Baqir had earlier said that CAD would be in the range of 2 to 3pc of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in FY22. However, the sudden rise in the deficit reflecting the trend may lead to higher than the SBP estimate.
The central bank’s data shows that trade deficit has sharply increased by 93.5pc during the first two months of FY22.
However, exports showed signs of improvement, posting a jump of 55pc in August at $2.881bn compared to the same month in FY21 at $1.860bn. Exports were also slightly higher in August than in July.
The import bill of 2MFY22 increased by 62.2pc to $13.033bn compared to the same period in FY22 when it was at $8.036bn.
