KARACHI: Pakistan’s current account deficit jumped by 50 per cent in thefirst eight months of FY18, making it more difficult for the country tomeet the gap as its reserves continue to fall.

The State Bank of Pakistan reported on Tuesday the current account deficitof the country rose to $10.826 billion during July-February FY18 comparedto $7.216bn in the same period.

The government is desperately looking for an option to reduce the increaseddeficit but the trade deficit could not be curtailed despite a 5pcdevaluation of local currency in December 2017.

During FY17, Pakistan posted a current account deficit of $12.2bn (4pc ofGDP) as compared to $2.6bn (0.9 pc of GDP) in FY16 indicating that thedeficit has been rising as threat to the economy.

For the month of February, however, the trade deficit shrank by 16.55pcmonth-on-month to $2,687m, from $3,220m in January 2018.

The remittances being sent by the overseas Pakistanis showed someimprovement and the exports also increased up to 11pc during the last eightmonths but the increased trade deficit has hampered any possibility tocurtail the current account deficit.

The imports of goods and services cost the country about $42.6bn duringJuly-Feb FY18 versus its exports of $19.4bn.