Economy in right direction as CAB has $792 million surplus in Q1: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Pakistan is heading in the right direction as the country’s current account balance (CAB) has recorded a surplus of $792 million in the first quarter (July-August) of the current fiscal year 2020-21.
The current account, which shows the difference between the government’s foreign income and expenditure, remained in surplus of $73 million during September, the Prime Minister revealed in a tweet on Wednesday.
This brought the surplus for the 1st quarter to $792 million compared to a deficit of $1,492 million during the same period of the last year, he tweeted, terming it great news for Pakistan.
He revealed that the growth was a result of exports growing 29 percent and remittances increasing 9 percent over the previous month.
Earlier in August, the Prime Minister revealed that after the current account balance posted a deficit of $613 million in July 2019 and a deficit of $100 million in July 2020, the current account balance swung upwards to a surplus of $424 million. He added that the strong turnaround was a result of continuing recovery in exports, that rose 20 percent compared to June 2020, and record remittances.
In June, it was reported that after a gap of seven months, Pakistan’s current account balance once again turned into a surplus of $13 million in May 2020 but at the expense of economic growth. The surplus was primarily achieved after Pakistan’s export earnings dropped to a 13-year low at $1.27 billion and import payments fell to a 10-year low at $2.8 billion in May.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan has commended the efforts of Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan and his team for effectively pursuing different cases.
Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan called on Prime Minister Imran Khan here on Wednesday and discussed the cases being heard by the Supreme Court and high courts.
The attorney general informed the Prime Minister that the Supreme Court has given one-month time to the federal government for taking a decision on the establishment of 120 accountability courts.
Both discussed pending cases relating to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in different courts and the tribunals. Matters pertaining to Islands ordinance also came under discussion. – TLTP