KARACHI: Pakistan recorded its highest-ever monthly current account surplus in March, with a surplus of $1.195 billion compared to $363 million in the same month last year, the State Bank data showed on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The March surplus accounted for the largest share of the $1.859bn total surplus posted during the July-March period of the ongoing fiscal year.<\/p>\n
The previous month also witnessed a historic inflow of remittances, which reached $4.1bn. The surge has prompted the SBP to raise its annual remittance target from $35bn to $38bn for FY25.<\/p>\n
Despite the SBP governor\u2019s assertion that import restrictions have been lif\u00adted, imports of goods during the nine-month period rose modestly to $43.39bn from $39.06bn a year earlier \u2014 an increase of just $4.33bn. Exports of goods also increased by $1.77bn, reaching $24.66bn in the same period.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the trade deficit in goods and services widened to $21.05bn in July-March FY25 compared to $18.36bn in the same period last year \u2014 an increase of $2.7bn. Nonetheless, the current account remained in surplus, largely due to robust remittance inflows.<\/p>\n
Financial experts attributed the strong March performance to record remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis. The inflows jumped 33 per cent year-on-year to $28bn during the nine months under review from $21bn in the year-ago period.<\/p>\n
The higher inflows have also encouraged the central bank to raise its foreign exchange reserves target to $14bn, up from $13bn.<\/p>\n
The only quarter with a deficit so far in FY25 was the first quarter (July-September), which posted a shortfall of $402m. This was followed by a strong second quarter (October-December) with a surplus of $1.562bn. The third quarter (January-March) posted a surplus of $699m, including the record $1.195bn in March alone.<\/p>\n
In its previous monetary policy statement, the SBP projected that the current account would remain within a surplus or deficit of 0.5pc of GDP. The ongoing trend suggests a likely surplus in the April-June quarter as well.<\/p>\n
Currency analysts noted that the record remittances and current account surplus had helped stabilise the exchange rate, improving investor sentiment and potentially paving the way for foreign inflows.<\/p>\n
Foreign direct investment<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rose by 14pc during July-March FY25, reaching $1.64bn compared to $1.44bn in the same period last year. While the increase of $202m is notable, analysts said the total remains modest for a country of 250 million people.<\/p>\n
Despite offering special incentives and promoting its mineral wealth in Balochistan, the government has struggled to attract large-scale FDI over the past three years. Business leaders said political instability and security concerns continue to deter international investors.<\/p>\n
However, there is optimism that Gulf countries may increase investment in Pakistan, particularly as lower oil prices drive them to diversify their portfolios.<\/p>\n
Foreign exchange reserves<\/p>\n
The SBP\u2019s foreign exchange reserves declined by $127m during the week ending April 11, primarily due to external debt repayments. The reserves now stand at $10.57bn, the lowest level since mid-September.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s total reserves, including those held by commercial banks, are now $15.66bn. The reserves are expected to rise following a forthcoming disbursement of around $1bn from the International Monetary Fund.<\/p>\n
PM hails surplus<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also expressed satisfaction over the current account surplus of $1.2 billion in March 2025, the highest in history.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the prime minister said the surplus current account surplus was a \u201creflection of a stabilising economy\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KARACHI: Pakistan recorded its highest-ever monthly current account surplus in March, with a surplus of $1.195 billion compared to $363 million in the same month last year, the State Bank data showed on Thursday. The March surplus accounted for the largest share of the $1.859bn total surplus posted during the July-March period of the ongoing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8296,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8294\/revisions\/8296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}