Pakistan’s CAD Drops 78% in July, Trade Deficit Surges

Pakistan’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed by 78% in July 2024, dropping to $162 million, as reported by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). This denotes a sharp decline from the $741 million deficit recorded in the same period last year.

However, the July deficit exceeded expectations due to a larger-than-anticipated trade deficit, which reached $2.4 billion, compared to the earlier reported figure of $1.97 billion. The SBP’s deficit numbers also came in lower than those published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

On a month-to-month basis, the current account deficit increased by 48% compared to the previous month, reaching $313 million.

In July 2024, Pakistan saw a 13% surge in exports, amounting to $2.39 billion, up from $2.1 billion in the same period last year. Meanwhile, imports jumped by 16% to $4.8 billion, compared to $4.1 billion in July 2023.

Additionally, remittances from overseas Pakistanis showed a robust increase of over 48%, rising to $2.99 billion in July 2024, up from $2 billion in July of the previous year.