pakistan
Pakistan deficit falls to $0.4bn in Dec: SBP
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Wednesday the current account deficit (CAD) fell to $0.4 billion in December 2022 from $1.9bn a year earlier, as the cash-strapped government slashed imports in a bid to avert an external payments crisis.
Foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank stand at $4.3bn — enough cover for just three weeks of imports — and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) bailout programme has been stalled for months.
December’s figures mean Pakistan has brought its CAD for the first half of the financial year that began in July 2022 down to $3.7bn from over $9bn in the corresponding period in the previous financial year, the SBP said.