Continuous decline in imports helped improve the CAD during first four months of FY23, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on its official twitter handle.

In October, after posting decline for three consecutive months, the current account deficit edged up to $0.56 billion as compared to $.0.3 billion in September this yea, according to a data issued by the SBP on Monday.

On year-on-year basis, the current account deficit posted a record decline of 68 percent as it went down to $0.567 billion in October 2022 from $1.78 billion in the same month of the year 2021.

According to the data, the exports of goods increased from $9.56 billion in Jul-October 2021-22 to $9.8 billion in same period of current fiscal year. On the other hand, the imports of goods decreased from $23.32 billion to $20.6 billion in the period under review.

The overall trade deficit also shrank to $10.8 billion in the first four months of FY23 as compared to the deficit of $13.75 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Similarly, the trade deficit in services also shrank to $812 million in Jul-October as compared to the deficit of $1.3 billion in the same period of the previous year.

The deficit of primary income declined to $1.46 billion in Jul-Oct 2022-23 as compared to $1.5 billion in the same period of the previous year.

The combined deficit of goods, services, and primary income also declined to $13.1 billion in the corresponding period while during the same period of last year, the deficit was recorded at $16.6 billion.

Worker’s remittances also posted a decline during the period under review as it went down to $9.1 billion compared to $10.8 billion in Jul-Oct (2021-22).