Current Account Deficit at $9.1 billion in 1HFY2022

January 26, 2022

282

State Bank of Pakistan has released the Data related to Current Account Balance, where current account posted a deficit of $9.1 billion in the first half of the current fiscal year (July’-December 2021), compared with a $1.2 billion surplus in the same period last year.

The Current Account deficit remained at $1.93 billion in December-2021 compared to $1.89 billion in November-2021, marking a slight increase.

In the calendar year 2021, Current Account deficit stood at $12.25 billion compared to a $245 million surplus the previous year.

Data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed that the main component of the current account, the trade deficit, rose 106 percent to $25.5 billion between July and December 2022.

The current account performance deteriorated as imports outstripped exports due to the recovery of the domestic economy from the COVID-19 pandemic and rising global commodity prices.

SBP expects a deficit of 4 percent of GDP for the current fiscal year (FY2022), while analysts expect a deficit of 5 to 6 percent of GDP, or roughly $17 billion.

Pakistan’s FY 2022 debt repayment was $14.3 billion (including China’s $4 billion safe deposit). The country is required to repay an external loan of $8.6 billion in the second half of fiscal year 2022.