Despite these moves both Pakistan’s current account and trade deficits are hitting records while foreign exchange reserves continue to fall. Pakistan’s external sector indicators “signal a crisis and are going from bad to worse,” said Uzair Younus, a South Asia director at Washington-based consultancy Albright Stonebridge Group LLC. Widening deficitThe current account deficit has continued to widen after a currency devaluation in December, putting further pressure on the rupee and pushing authorities to borrow more. The current account gap reached 4.7% of the gross domestic product in the seven months ending January, compared with 3.5% a year earlier. While the nation raised dollar-denominated debt in November to bolster reserves, outflows since then have almost wiped out that amount.

Source: Mint February 26, 2018 06:11 UTC