India's current account balance records marginal surplus during Q4 of 2019-20

India's current account balance (CAB) has recorded a marginal surplus of USD 0.6 billion, which is 0.1 per cent of GDP, in the fourth quarter i.e. January-March 2020, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Tuesday.

The RBI said that this marginal surplus in Q4 of 2019-20 comes against a deficit of USD 4.6 billion (0.7 per cent of GDP) in Q4 of 2018-19 and USD 2.6 billion (0.4 per cent of GDP) in the preceding quarter, i.e., Q3 of 2019-20.

The surplus in the current account in Q4 of 2019-20 was primarily on account of a lower trade deficit at USD 35 billion and a sharp rise in net invisible receipts at USD 35.6 billion as compared with the corresponding period of last year.

The net services receipt and private transfer receipts increased in the period.

Meanwhile, net outgo from the primary income account, primarily reflecting net overseas investment income payments, decreased to USD 4.8 billion from USD 6.9 billion a year ago.

As per the Balance of Payment (BoP) during 2019-20, the CAD narrowed to 0.9 per cent of GDP in 2019-20 from 2.1 per cent in 2018-19 on the back of the trade deficit which shrank to USD 157.5 billion in 2019-20 from USD 180.3 billion in 2018-19.

In 2019-20, there was an accretion of USD 59.5 billion to foreign exchange reserves (on a BoP basis), according to RBI.

( With inputs from ANI )