By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Pakistan recorded a $427 million current-account surplus in February, its largest monthly positive balance since March 2025, as strong remittance inflows, gains in value-added exports and disciplined import growth helped narrow the external shortfall.
Data released by the State Bank of Pakistan on Monday showed the February surplus, an improvement from a revised $68 million surplus the previous month and the second consecutive monthly positive reading after a $244 million deficit in December. That also marks the highest figure since the $1.28 billion surplus posted in March 2025.
On a cumulative basis, the current-account deficit for the first eight months of fiscal 2026 through February stood at $700 million. That compares with a $479 million surplus in the same period a year earlier. The first two quarters of the fiscal year showed a combined deficit, against a $1.9 billion surplus in the corresponding period of fiscal 2025.
In a post on X, Khurram Schehzad, an adviser to the finance minister, described February’s reading as Pakistan’s largest current-account surplus of 2026 and the highest since March 2025. The back-to-back monthly surpluses reflect “strong remittance inflows, improving value-added exports, and disciplined imports (growth-driven),” he wrote, “signaling continued improvement in Pakistan’s external sector.”
The improvement has helped stabilize macroeconomic conditions and ease pressure on external financing needs. Pakistan’s external buffers remain adequate, Schehzad added, calling the development “a key milestone for sustainable economic recovery and investor confidence” despite challenges from regional conflict.
Goods imports from July through February rose $3.38 billion to $41.823 billion from $36.433 billion in the year-earlier period, according to SBP data. Exports of services increased by about $1 billion, while services imports gained $1.1 billion. The current-account balance, a long-standing pressure point for Pakistan’s economy, has benefited from restrained imports that helped swing the reading into surplus for the first two months of calendar 2026. Yet that same import compression has weighed on growth, with gross domestic product expanding only about 3% in fiscal 2025.
Analysts said sustaining the discipline will be no easy task. International oil prices have climbed nearly 80%, and further increases are possible if the Middle East conflict that began Feb. 28 drags on. The SBP’s February figures predate the full effects of the war, they added, leaving the external accounts exposed should crude costs keep rising and bloat the energy import bill.
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