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The weekly roundup of Pakistan’s economy

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During the outgoing week, benchmark index remained under pressure, witnessed one of the worst drop in three years during the week, with the close 36,579 points on Wednesday.

However, later two sessions helped bourse hike over 758 points to close the week with a meagre loss of 184 points. Bullish rally began on Thursday as the market sentiment improved as the government hint positive outcome of ongoing meetings with IMF and World Bank in Washington.

During the departed week index closed three sessions in green territory and ended the week at 37,338 pts, marking a growth of 0.5% WoW.

In addition, the other major business and economic developments that took place during the departed week include:

On Thursday, during a meeting with Asad Umar in Washington, World Bank (WB) President David Malpass appreciated the reform process the Pakistani government had initiated in the country and assured continued support from the bank.

Meanwhile, Pakistan will present an implementation report on its action plan to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on April 15, the third of four such reports to be presented to the global financial watchdog before its review of Islamabad’s performance in June this year.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister's Advisor on Commerce, Abdul Razak Dawood and Chairman Board of Investment Haroon Sharif at a joint media briefing said that Pakistan has improved its ranking by eleven points in doing business report 2019 for the first time in one year.

On Thursday, senior official said that Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) achieved a net target of Rs. 300 billion during the first nine months (Jul-March) 31, 2018-19, i.e. 68 percent higher as compared to the same period last year. The total savings held by the CDNS stood at Rs. 1659 billion by March 31.

On Tuesday, the ministry of Finance awarded the mandate for issuing the Panda bond to a consortium led by China International Capital Corporation (CICC). According to sources the consortium includes China Development Bank (CDB), CitiBank and HBL.

On the upside, Volkswagen, the leading German automaker in collaboration with a local partner is planning to invest $135 million in Pakistan to set up an auto plant for manufacturing and assembling vehicles in Pakistan.

On Monday, Pakistan and Bahrain signed Memorandum of Understandings regarding promotion of bilateral trade and investment, avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion. 

On the downside, Fitch Solutions Macro Research in its latest reports said that, the Pakistani banking sector will continue to face headwinds in 2019 and 2020, on the back of rising interest rates and slowing economic growth.

Moreover, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday trimmed Pakistan’s growth forecast to 2.9 percent in 2019 and 2.8 percent in 2020 and projected sharp rise in inflation from 3.9 percent in 2018 to 7.6 percent in 2019.

The statistical data released this week apprising the economic standing of the country are listed below:

  • Pakistan’s forex reserves decreased by USD 169.3 million as the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD 17,228.3 million on April 5, 2019.
  • Pakistan’s trade deficit in services improved by 6.3% in February 2019, as compared to the prior month ($211 million) whereas cumulative deficit for the 8 months of ongoing fiscal year (FY19) narrowed down by 36.5% over the year.
  • Pakistan’s trade deficit for the first 9 months (July-March) of FY19 stood at USD 23.672 billion compared to USD 27.216 billion from the corresponding period of last year.
  • Overseas Pakistani workers remitted $16096.33 million in the first nine months (July to March) of FY18, showing a growth of 8.74 % compared with $1.4802.96 million received during the same period of preceding year.
  • Over 160.3 thousand passenger car units have been sold in Pakistan during ongoing fiscal year 2019, as of March 2019.
  • Money supply rose by over Rs.179 billion in February 2019, as compared to January when the supply was Rs.20.05 trillion.
  • The Government of Pakistan’s net loan for ongoing fiscal year (FY19) has come down by Rs.157 billion during the week ended March 29, 2019
  • During the ongoing fiscal year (FY19), Pakistan’s non-government sector borrowed a sum of Rs.921.7 billion as of March 29, 2019
  • Net selling via SCRA during the week expanded to Rs.18 million while last week’s figure was recorded at Rs.3 million.

Copyright Mettis Link News

Posted on: 2019-04-14T13:53:00+05:00

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