Pakistan’s current account recorded a surplus for the third consecutive month because of appreciable growth in exports and remittances.

Data released by the State Bank of Pakistan on Monday showed that the country posted a surplus of $349 million in October compared to a deficit of $287 million in the same month last year.

During four months of the current fiscal year, the current account overall was in surplus of $218 million while in the same period last year, current account was in deficit of $1.5 billion, the data said.

Despite increase in trade deficit during the four months of the current fiscal year, improvement in remittances helped off-set the overall trend.

Trade deficit during four months of the fiscal year widened by $1.3 billion to $8.3 billion. Remittances during the same period recorded an appreciable rise of $3 billion to settle at $11.850 billion.

The central bank in a recent report estimated that current deficit by end of this fiscal year might rise to 1% of the GDP.