Neha Sood
The current account deficit of the nation has broadened from $4.29 billion in July-September in 2007 to $12.54 billion in the second quarter of the present financial year.
The value stood at $9.79 billion at the end of previous quarter.
The underlying reason believed is the increasing trade deficit, which resulted due to rise in import bill and dip in export volumes. Among the ones to show increased imports was oil that jumped by 45% and non-oil imports went up by 37.6%. The latter is due to elevated shipping of capital goods, fertiliser and chemicals. However, the categories to show a rise in exports were ‘software services’ and ‘merchandise’, with the former displaying an increase of 54% and the latter hopped by 24.6 percentage points. The receipts in software services increased due to remittances from overseas.
Consequently, the capital account balance stood at $7.8 billion for the second quarter of the financial year whereas the value was $33.53 in the previous year’ corresponding period.
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