The weekly roundup of Pakistan's economy

As the arrival of Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia opened way to various new avenues for Pakistan by signing of $20 billion (Rs2.8 trillion) memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with an aim of further enhancing this bilateral cooperation between the two brotherly countries in future, the departed week remained satisfactory from an economic perspective. This past week brought a series of economic events both in terms of data releases and the developments in public policy.

On Thursday, Pakistan and Belgium signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance bilateral cooperation in the areas of business and investment between the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) and the trade and investment bodies of three regions of Belgium, namely the Flanders Investment and Trade; Wallonia Export Investment Agency and Brussels Agency for Business Support in Brussels.

In addition to this, a high-profile trade delegation of Singapore Business Federation (SBF) is visiting Pakistan from 24th February to 3rd March 2019 to explore the business opportunities and enhancement of the bilateral trade and economic relations.

Against a backdrop of insufficient foreign exchange reserves, mounting debts and a balance of payment crisis, Pakistan’s government is set to sell two LNG-fired power plants to bring in the needed finance, thus bringing about the country’s biggest privatization in over a decade. 

On Wednesday, SBP conducted an auction in which it sold Rs.301.877 Billion in PIBs for 3, 5 and 10 years. Out of the amount Rs.221.602 Billion was picked up in the fixed income bonds while Rs.80.275bn was picked up in the 10-year Floating Rate bond.

On Tuesday the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research for continued operation of two urea plants — Fatima Fertilizer and Agritech — beyond the current month till October to ensure sufficient supply of the fertilizer.

On Friday, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) decided to increase tariff for all power distribution companies by Rs. 1.8 per unit for the month of January.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) pronounced Pakistan’s efforts to curb terror financing and money laundering as ‘limited’ based on the country’s inability to demonstrate a proper understanding of the terror financing (TF) risks posed by the terrorist groups namely Da’esh, Al-Qaeda, JuD, FiF, LeT, JeM, HQN and Taliban.

On the upside, Federal Minister for Planning Development and Reform Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar said that 12th Five Year Plan has extensively covered growth, macro stability, expand agriculture production, galvanize agro-business potential, industry and export competitiveness, human resource development, integrated energy planning, infrastructure development, social safety nets, poverty reduction, achieving SDGs and administrative reforms along-with focus on less developed areas, climate change and environment.

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

• The federal government released Rs.319.3 billion against the total allocation of Rs.675 billion under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2018-19 for various ongoing and new schemes.
• Total foreign investment in Pakistan during the month of January 2019 totaled at $143 million. All of this investment was made in the private sector, as per the records. The total foreign investment has fallen by $87 million over the month and by $44.4 million over the year. – SBP
• The government is another Rs.37 million in debt in addition to the net amount borrowed as of February 1, 2018, during the current fiscal year (Rs.734.9 billion).
• Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) has so far recovered Rs3.79 billion from overseas employers and distributed among legal heirs of deceased overseas Pakistanis whose bread earners had expired abroad during work.
• Pakistan’s budget deficit during July to December 2018 widened to 2.7% of the GDP as compared to the same period last year when it stood at 2.2%. – Ministry of Finance
• Food group exports during first seven months of current financial year witnessed 2.46 percent increase. In the meantime, the imports also witnessed significant decrease of 8.29 percent as compared with the corresponding period of the last year.
• Pakistan's net tax collection through imports during first seven months of current fiscal year (2018-19) increased by 6.16 percent to Rs 1,003.105 billion against the net tax collection of Rs 944.822 billion during same period of the preceding year.
• The gold imports into the country dipped by 24.34 percent during the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year.
• Net Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the month of January 2019 declined by 58.6% compared to previous month.
• Current account deficit during the period July to January has shrunk by 17% i.e. $1.7 billion, to arrive at $8.424 billion.
• Pakistan’s forex reserves decreased by 0.68 percent and the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD14,794.60 million on Feb 15, 2019.
• Pakistan’s Sensitive Price Index (SPI) for the week ended February 21, 2019 has inched up by another 0.34% over the week whereas change as compared to same period last year is recorded at 10.44%
• Net purchase of securities via Specially Convertible Rupee Account (SCRA) logged in at Rs.1.9 billion, up from Rs.1.6 billion recorded a week earlier.

Meanwhile, in the midst of an ongoing financial earning season, the following companies announced their results as follows:

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