KARACHI: The current account deficit, which remained the toughest challengefor economic managers, shot up by 43% to $15.96 billion in the first 11months of the outgoing fiscal year with higher than the set import targetand lower workers’ remittances, according to the State Bank of Pakistan(SBP).
The 11-month deficit stands very close to the full-year’s estimate of $16billion according to independent economists. The trend suggests the deficitfor the full-year would swell to around $17.5 billion by end of June 2018.
The deficit stood at $11.14 million in the corresponding period of theprevious fiscal year, SBP reported.
Experts said the exorbitant imports, sluggish exports and insignificantsurge in workers’ remittances have continued to fuel the current accountdeficit.
The import of goods in the 11 months has reached $50.71 billion, which ismuch higher than the government’s set target of $48.8 billion for thefull-year.
The imports remained exorbitant despite the government’s decisions toimpose additional regulatory duties on over 300 items to discourse importsduring the year. Rupee depreciation by over 15% against the US dollar inthe last six months also proved to be unhelpful.
Despite the two measures, the imports hit record high of $5.8 billion inthe single month of May 2018.