Current account deficit for the first four months of this fiscal year widened to $1.759 billion because of higher import bill and lower growth in the export sector.
The State Bank reported yesterday that the current account deficit was $347 million in October, much higher than $79m in September, which pushed up July-October total to $1.759bn. The deficit during the same period of FY14 was $1.368bn.
The country’s weak balances on external front could get critical with the rising current account deficit. Though the remittances (recorded at $6bn in July-October) have been rising at a rate of 15 per cent, the export sector’s poor performance has quashed the positive impacts of higher inflows.
Despite low oil prices, the import bill increased by half a billion dollars during the four months compared to the same period last year.
