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KARACHI: The current account posted a surplus of $459 million in May, pushing the cumulative balance for the first 11 months of the current fiscal year back into surplus.
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data released on Wednesday showed that the surplus in May, compared with a deficit of $276m in April, has raised hopes that the government could close the fiscal year with either a surplus or only a marginal deficit. The previous fiscal year ended with a surplus of $1.8 billion.
The data showed that the current account recorded a surplus of $255m during July-May FY26, compared with a surplus of $1.618bn in the corresponding period of FY25. The government has set a current account deficit target of $3.6bn (around 0.7pc of GDP) for FY27, compared with a revised deficit target of about $1.1bn for FY26. A possible surplus in FY26 would be encouraging for economic stability and would help support exchange rate strength.
Financial sector analysts attributed the May current account surplus largely to exceptionally strong remittance inflows. The country received $4.2bn in remittances during May, prompting the government to raise its remittance target for FY27.
