Editing Economy of Pakistan (section)

=== External imbalances ===
{{See also|Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund}}
During FY 2017, the increase in imports of capital equipment and fuel significantly put pressure on the external account. A reversal in global oil prices led to an increase in POL imports, accompanied by falling exports; as a result, the merchandise [[trade deficit]] grew by 39.4 percent to US$26.885 billion in FY 2017. While [[remittances]] and Coalition Support Fund inflows both declined slightly over the same period last year, however, the impact was offset by an improvement in the income account, mainly due to lower profit repatriations by oil and gas firms.<ref name="financegov">{{Cite web |title=Trade and Payments |url=http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_17/08-Trade.pdf |access-date=16 September 2023 |website=finance.gov.pk}}</ref>

The [[current account deficit]] increased to US$19.2 billion in FY 2018.<ref name=":1" />

However, the impact of high current deficit on [[foreign exchange reserves]] was not severe, as financial inflows were available to the country to partially offset the gap; these inflows helped ensure stability in the exchange rate. Net [[Foreign direct investment|FDI]] grew by 12.4 percent and reached US$1.6 billion in the nine-month period, whereas net FPI saw an inflow of US$631 million, against an outflow of US$393 million last year. Encouragingly for the country, the period saw the completion of multiple merger and acquisition deals between local and foreign companies. Moreover, multiple foreign automakers announced their intention to enter the Pakistani market, and some also entered into joint ventures with local conglomerates. This indicates that Pakistan is clearly on foreign investors' radar, and provides a positive outlook for FDI inflows going forward. government's successful issuance of a US$1.0 billion Sukuk in the international capital market, at an extremely low rate of 5.5 percent.

Pakistan continued to enjoy support from international financial institutions (IFIs) like the [[World Bank]] and [[Asian Development Bank]], and from bilateral partners like China, in the post-EFF period: net official loan inflows of US$1.1 billion were recorded during the period. As a result, the country's FX reserve amounted to US$20.8 billion by 4 May 2017 sufficient to finance around four months of import payments.<ref name="financegov" />

{| class="wikitable"
|+Amounts in billion US dollars<ref name=":1">{{cite web |title=Summary Balance of Payments |url=http://www.sbp.org.pk/ecodata/BOP-Services/bop.pdf |access-date=4 August 2023 |website=SBP}}</ref>
! List
! FY 2008
! FY 2009
! FY 2010
! FY 2011
! FY 2012
! FY 2013
! FY 2014
! FY 2015
! FY 2016
! FY 2017
! FY 2018
! FY 2019
! FY 2020
! FY 2021
! FY 2022
! FY 2023
!FY 2024
|-
! Credit
| 37.25
| 35.36
| 38.14
| 47.70
| 48.24
| 50.20
| 51.15
| 52.90
| 51.24
| 52.22
| 55.15
| 55.79
| 54.25
| 65.12
| 73.20
| 64.79
|72.45
|-
! Debit
| 51.12
| 44.62
| 42.08
| 47.49
| 52.90
| 52.69
| 54.28
| 55.71
| 56.20
| 64.49
| 74.34
| 69.23
| 58.70
| 67.94
| 90.68
| 68.06
|74.14
|-
! Net
| −13.87
| −9.26
| −3.95
|  214
| −4.66
| −2.50
| −3.13
| −2.82
| −4.96
| −12.27
| −19.20
| −13.43
| −4.45
| −2.82
| −17.48
| −3.28
| -1.69
|-
! colspan="15" |As % of GDP
!
!
!
|-
!Net 
|{{decrease}} -8.9
|{{increase}} -5.7
|{{increase}} -2.3
|{{increase}} +0.1
|{{decrease}} -2.1
|{{increase}} -1.1
|{{decrease}} -1.3
|{{increase}} -1.0
|{{decrease}} -1.7
|{{decrease}} -4.0
|{{decrease}} -6.1
|{{increase}} -4.8
|{{increase}} -1.7
|{{increase}} -0.6
|
|
|
|}