KARACHI: The foreign exchange inflows through Roshan Digital Account (RDA) reached $2.114 billion at the end of August.

The State Bank of Paki­stan’s data shows that the RDA inflows have significantly gone up since June this year, which puts the government in a better position to face a much bigger current account deficit expected in FY22.

The RDA was introduced in September 2020 and initially it attracted deposits of just $7m. Inflows picked up momentum reaching $250m during Sept to Dec 2020.

However, in first 8 months of calendar year 2021, the inflows grew rapidly by $1.864bn taking the total to $2.114bn by end of August, which alone witnessed an inflow of $245m.

Out of the total inflows Naya Pakistan Certi­ficates attracted $1,475m so far. The State Bank’s data shows that the country received $307m in July compared to $310m in June reflecting the higher trend with inflow of over $300m per month.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2021