April 08, 2020 (MLN): Colony Textile Mills Limited has partially resumed its production activities at its Weaving division as the Provincial Government has allowed the textile companies to resume their operations.
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May 31, 2020 (MLN): As Covid-19 spreads globally, governments around the world have taken various measures to curb spread of the disease including complete and partial lockdowns, suspension of social gatherings, halting of public transport facilities, closure of schools and universities and adoption of work from home models.
All this has meant that the health emergency has also turned into an economic shock with both the supply and demand side effected.
In this context, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has started a podcast series which aims to understand the economics of this shock by answering five broad questions regarding Covid-19 and its economic impact on emerging economies like Pakistan and how Pakistan has and continues to respond to the Covid-19 crisis.
In the first Podcast, SBP laid its focus on the first question that how Covid-19 may impact an economy like Pakistan by saying that it is primarily a health emergency which has eventually turned into an economic shock. This shock has affected emerging markets like Pakistan through various channels both external and domestic.
External channels include the slowdown of international trade, workers remittances and financial flows, however, it has also brought some respite for oil importers in the form of lower oil prices, explains SBP in a podcast.
Domestically, SBP elucidates that heightened uncertainty has adversely affected consumer demand, business activity, investment as well as government revenue in emerging markets.
To fight the pandemic, governments around the globe have imposed lockdowns of varying degrees. This has led to lower mobility and higher unemployment, resulting in reduced household consumption, this in turn has created cashflow problems for businesses and factories.
If this loop continues for too long, it could lead to businesses filing for bankruptcies and having to layoff workers. If the pandemic is prolonged, heightened liquidity issues and bankruptcies for firms might also translate into losses on commercial banks’ balance sheets putting the financial system under pressure, edified in a video.
Overall these macro financial linkages could further amplify the impact of the covid-19 shock on domestic economic activity. In case of external channels, the covid-19 shock has adversely affected global economic growth and global trade.
Video further enlightened that for emerging markets this has resulted in cancelation or delays an export orders and disruptions in international supply chains. Moreover, the slowdown in advanced and oil producing economies is upsetting remittance inflows to labor exporting countries. In addition, heightened global risk aversion has badly affected capital flows to emerging markets.
All these factors translate into a reduction in forex reserves, currency depreciation, pressure on the budget and a slowdown in economic growth in emerging markets like Pakistan.
May 31, 2020 (MLN): The KSE-100 index gained merely 94 points in the last two days of the departed week and closed 33,931-mark i.e. nearly 0.28% percent higher than the closing of the previous week.
The two-day trading week saw no substantial activity from the investors’ side due to lack of triggers and market drivers. While there was some excitement in the air on account of the upcoming budget, the expectations of which most pertain to the upliftment of the economy. However, there was no major news regarding the budget either, which kept the sentiments of the investors at bay.
The benchmark index was mainly led down by the performance of sectors such as Commercial Banks, Fertilizer, Food & Personal Care, Chemical, and Tobacco, as they looted the index by 43, 41, 29, 17 and 13 points, respectively.
Technology & Communication, and Pharmaceutical Sector emerged as the best performing sectors during the week, as both of them contributed about 47 points each to the benchmark index, followed by sectors such as Cement, Power Generations and Textile, which combinedly contributed 85 points to the index.
Company-wise, the scrips of TRG, OGDC, LUCK, SEARL and SYS were the most desirable ones as they contributed 29, 24, 22, 20 and 17 points, respectively. On the other hand, the shares of ENGRO, UBL, NESTLE, MCB and EFERT were the unwanted ones, as they took away 50, 32, 26, 22, and 20 points, respectively.
Figures released by NCCPL showed that foreign investors dumped USD 2.4 million worth of stocks during the week with foreign corporates doing the bulk of the selling.
On the local front, Individual Investors picked up USD 3.9 million worth of stocks, whereas the Mutual Funds sold approximately USD 2.2 million worth of stocks over the week.
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May 31, 2020 (MLN): The latest wrap of financial and economic data releases over the course of the week is here to provide you insights on what is coming up.
The Weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the Combined Group increased by 0.13% during the week ended May 28, 2020 while the SPI increased by 9.63% compared to the corresponding period from last year.
Pakistan's Forex Reserves decreased by USD 20.40 Million or 0.11% and the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD 18,597.90 Million on May 21, 2020.
Petroleum, Agriculture Products & Chemicals, Machinery, and Food are the commodities that Pakistan imported heavily during Jul-Apr FY20 as they accounted for 23%, 16%, 14%, and 11% of the total import respectively.
Just like the previous month, Pakistan’s export performance remained miserable in the month of April 2020, as the exports of major commodities continued to fall in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak. Cumulatively, during Jul-April FY20, the overall exports declined by 2% YoY to $19.65 billion as compared to $20.135 billion recorded during Jul-April FY19.
Total exports of Pakistani goods as per Balance of Payment (BoP) fell by 23.5% MoM and 33.2% YoY to $1.39 billion in April’20, showing the international trade disruptions due to the ongoing pandemic.
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet Saturday approved the criteria for disbursement of Rs.200 billion in the power sector received through Islamic Sukuk.
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May 31, 2020 (MLN): The highlights of the important economic and business events that took place during the last week are in order so as to become acquainted with the recent developments in Pakistan’s economic and public policy.
On Friday, the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) awarded the consultancy contract worth Rs. 156.226 million to a joint venture headed by NESPAK for a feasibility study, detailed engineering design, preparation of tender documents, and PC-I of Murunj Dam Project.
Meanwhile, SEARL company informed that it has been entered into an exclusive licensing & marketing agreement with Beximco Pharmaceuticals for Remdesivir.
Moreover, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) asked Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to furnish a three-month data regarding depot-wise sales and stocks of petrol and high speed diesel by June 1.
On Thursday, Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce Razak Dawood said that Pakistani exporters have obtained large orders of face masks from United States, Canada and Europe. In his tweets, he described it a major breakthrough and congratulated the exporters for the achievement.
Furthermore, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Muhammad Ahmed Waheed on Thursday urged the government to cut high taxes on rental income to 10 percent in the forthcoming budget that would facilitate the growth of business activities and improve tax revenue of the government as well.
The same day, a delegation of Nishat Group called on Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh to apprise him of the damage done by COVID-19 related economic downturn to large-scale manufacturers.
Besides, International Monetary Fund (IMF) resumed discussions with Pakistan to complete the second review for extended fund facility program, which was deferred last month due to outbreak of the pandemic.
On the downside, Fitch Ratings made further cuts to world GDP forecasts in its latest Global Economic Outlook (GEO), but the slump in global economic activity is close to reaching its trough.
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May 31, 2020: The Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood has said the government was prioritizing development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and transfer of technology into the country.
“The SEZs are primarily focused on industrialization that result in export promotion, import substitution, transfer of technologies and employment generation, which are the primary targets of our government as well,” Abdul Razak Dawood told APP here.
The advisor said the establishment of SEZs was critical to resolving Balance of Payment Issues as ”we tend to give priority to enterprises which are involved in export generation or import substitution” he said.
Talking about the criteria, the advisor said that only those economic zones are given status of SEZ which are successful in export generation and import substitution while at zone enterprise level, the admission into an SEZ is based on the economic viability of the business proposal.
Razak Dawood said this economic viability was gauged through the expected employment generation, domestic raw material consumption, imported raw material, and local and imported machinery at the time of consideration of the zone entry application.
He said as more and more zone enterprises are coming into production the monitoring of these commitments has become indispensable, informing that instead of leaving it up to the developers or SEZs for that matter, the SEZ Secretariat at BOI was working to not only consolidate the data for gauging the actual benefits at zone enterprise level.
He added that the BOI was also working towards amendments in the SEZ Act 2012 to streamlines these objectives and provide a conducive environment for the enterprises to meet these objectives.
Replying to question on changes expected in SEZ Act and rules, he said the SEZ Act in its current form could not effectively contribute towards industrialization of Pakistan in its true spirit due to some inherent shortcomings, like slow pace of development and lack of utilities in the SEZs, complicated approval process, cumbersome procedures for availing the incentives, lack of clear policy objectives, absence of one window operations and others.
The advisor said the proposed amendments aim to cater for the government’s vision to promote the entire Service Sector such as knowledgeand Information Technology (IT) SEZs, tourism ,:including faith, health, cultural, and geographic etc, through Integrated Tourism Zones.
He further said that considering that regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles pose the biggest challenge to Industrialization, One Stop Services Act is proposed to be promulgated to ensure the requisite Ease of Doing Business and to provide quality services to the investors with legal backing.
Razak Dawood said that with digital world becoming a reality, the SEZs are to be transformed to meet the challenge and create space for IT SEZs.
For this to materialize, the proposed amendments also include a special provision for IT SEZs that relaxes the minimum land requirement of 50 acres,he added.
He informed that an incentives package to attract meaningful export led, import substituting and labour intensive industrialization through local and foreign investors including the expected Chinese relocation of industries in the SEZs has been prepared by our team at Board of Investment, which has been submitted for the approval of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECClesiastic) of the Cabinet.
He said this package not only includes extension of the already provided incentives but also some additional benefits for the developers and zone enterprises subject to the approval of the ECC.
While replying to a question on the role of SEZs in industrial development under China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC ), he said that CPEC , SEZs can be a true catalyst to industrialization in Pakistan.
The advisor said that due to various shifts in global economy and the changes in international relations, many manufacturing businesses are relocating from China to other destinations.
An Industrial Development Cooperation Project (CPEC-ICDP) project is already working at full pace at the Board of Investment (BOI) with a mandate to fast track industrial cooperation between China and Pakistan, he said.
He informed that China is developing first state of the art CPEC-SEZ (Rashakai Special Economic Zone) in Nowshehra, KPK and more international developers are being solicited through international bidding to develop SEZs in Pakistan.
He said Chinese companies (State Owned as well as Private) are showing keen interest to develop SEZs in Pakistan and hope that having Chinese units in CPEC, SEZs, Pakistan will become part of Global Value Chains (GVCs).
Exports, import substitution, transfer of technologies, and employment generation are the expected outcomes from CPEC-SEZs,he said.
While in his message for foreign investors to lure investment in SEZs, he said Pakistan offers liberal investment regime to local as well as foreign investors.
He said thar Investment Laws, Investment Policy, along with the SEZ Act, regulate foreign investments in Pakistan. Important considerations regarding Pakistan’s
Investment Regime for the foreign investors are and emphasised to equal treatment for local and foreign Investors.
Razak Dawood said said that all Sectors are Open for Investment , except arms, explosives, radioactive substances, securities, mint/currency and consumable alcohol).
He further Up to 100% Foreign Ownership allowed and no minimum investment is required or restrictions on currency convertibility and repatriation of profits and capital.
The government offered the Investment Protection through laws of the Parliament on Online Visa Facility, International Arbitration is allowed and full ownership and lease of land is allowed, he said.
The advisor said that in Ease of Doing Business, Pakistan has improved from 136 to 108 number of EoDB rank which shows government’s commitment to improving business environment.
APP
