External stress returns

Financing current account deficit becomes a problem

The official data is now available for India’s external account in the third quarter of the financial year 2018-19, between October and December 2018. According to the statistics, the current account deficit stood at 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product, or GDP. A lower price of crude oil flattered the balance of payments, allowing the current account deficit to come down from the dangerously high 2.9 per cent of GDP, which was recorded for the second quarter of 2018-19, between July and September 2018. The overall current account deficit for the period between April and December 2018 stood at