Presided over by Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, a meeting reviewed the draft Security Bill and Future Trading Bill as proposed by the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.
Despite significantly large growth in remittances, the country’s current account deficit widened by $95 million in January, reaching $2.307 billion in the first seven months (July-Jan) of this fiscal year. The SBP reported that the current account deficit still has strong presence in the balance sheet of the country, mainly on account of low exports and increased imports.
During July-Jan, overseas Pakistanis sent record $10.3bn remittances but it could not help reduce the current account deficit, which was almost equal to the deficit of $2.537bn during the same period of 2013-14. Imbalances on trade in goods increased to $10.696bn compared to $10.109bn a year earlier, showing the poor exports performance and unwanted growth in the volume of imports.
On the occasion, Zafarul Haq Hijazi Chairman SECP briefed the minister that in view of sea change and modernisation it had become imperative to revamp existing laws in tandem with the emerging requirements of the capital and trading markets.
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