India's current account balance recorded a marginal surplus in the January-March quarter of FY20, as per data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
"India's current account balance (CAB) recorded a marginal surplus of $0.6 billion (0.1 percent of GDP) in Q4 FY20 as against a deficit of $4.6 billion (0.7 percent of GDP) in Q4 FY19 and $2.6 billion (0.4 percent of GDP) in the preceding quarter, i.e., Q3 FY20," RBI said in its release.
It is important to note that this is the first quarterly current account surplus since the December 2004 quarter.
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Marginal surplus in the country's current account balance is mainly on account of lower trade deficit (at $35 billion) and a sharp rise in net invisible receipts (at $35.6 billion) as compared with the corresponding period of last year.
The central bank, in its preliminary data released on India's balance of payments (BoP) for Q4FY20, noted that "private transfer receipts, mainly representing remittances by Indians employed overseas, increased to $20.6 billion, up by 14.8 percent from their level a year ago."
It added that net services receipts increased on the back of a rise in net earnings from computer and travel services on a year-on-year basis.
