PM counts his economic team's feats.

ISLAMABAD -- Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said it was a great achievement of his economic team to turn around the national economy within a year.

In a tweet, the prime minister said that foreign direct investment (FDI) witnessed an increase of 111.5 percent while foreign private investment surged by 194 percent during this period.

While explaining the economic team's achievements with facts and figures, the prime minister said that current account deficit has gone down by 80 percent during the corresponding period while the remittances have increased by 17.6 percent.

Similarly, exports registered an increase of 5.9 percent over the last year while imports decreased by 18.6 percent.

In a related development, latest data for first quarter of current fiscal year released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday showed the country's current account deficit (cad) in the first quarter of current fiscal year declined by a huge 64 percent mainly on the back of a 21pc reduction in the imports bill.

SBP's data showed the current account deficit for July-September FY20 clocked in at $1.548 billion compared to $4.287b in the same period last fiscal year; a decline of $2.739b.

The reduced current account deficit is a positive omen for the government, which is struggling with slow economic growth and high inflation. However, despite massive decline in rupee's value, the country's exports have failed to register any noticeable increase during the period.

The data showed the large decline in imports was the real force behind the 64pc reduction in the deficit whereas, exports of goods and services during the quarter increased by a meagre 1.38pc or $99 million. The exports services during the quarter clocked in at $7.259b compared to $7.160b in the same period last fiscal year.

Contrary to exports, the...

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