September 19, 2021 (MLN): The financial highlights of the country are brought to light with the economic and financial data releases over the course of the week.

• Pakistan’s current account balance (CAB) posted a deficit of $1.47billion in August 2021, compared to a surplus of $225million in the corresponding month last year.
• Pakistan’s trade deficit in services ballooned by 2.9x YoY to $355 million during August 2021, from a deficit of $123mn recorded in the same month last fiscal year.
• Foreign direct investment in Pakistan stood at $113.2 million during August’21, showing an increase of 26% MoM against the net inflow of $89.9mn recorded in July’21.
• Pak Rupee's Real Effective Exchange Rate Index (REER) decreased to a provisional value of 97.4 in August’21 compared to 99.4 in July’21.
• The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at US$27,064.9 million on 10-September-2021.
• Imports into Pakistan during August 2021 amounted to Rs. 1,081,961 million (provisional) as against Rs. 889,779 million (provisional) in July 2021 and Rs. 556,064 million during August 2020, showing an increase of 21.60% over July 2021 and of 94.57% over August 2020.
• Exports from Pakistan during August 2021 amounted to Rs. 368,847 million (provisional) as against Rs. 373,412 million (provisional) in July 2021 and Rs. 265,600 million during August 2020, showing a decrease of 1.22% over July 2021 but an increase of 38.87% over August 2020.
• The import bill of petroleum products during the month of August’21 stood at $1.76billion, depicting a colossal surge of 2.3x YoY while on MoM basis, the import of the same group surge by 32%, compared to the same period last year.
• With a contribution of 15% to the total import bill during the month of August’21, the import bill of the machinery group surged by 52% YoY to $984 million.
• The total export of textile products witnessed an upsurge of 45.2% YoY to clock in at $1.46 billion during August’21. When compared with the figures of the previous month, exports of textile commodities depicted a marginal decline of 0.57%.
• The trade value of food exports from the country in August’21 stood at around $325.75million, showing a robust surge of 48% YoY from $220mn in August 2020.
• The unemployment rate in Pakistan jumped from 5.8% in 2017-18 to 6.9% in 2018-19, the Labor Force Survey (LFS) published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics revealed.
• The prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) have moved up by Rs5 and Rs5.01 per litre, respectively. While, the prices of Kerosene Oil and Light Diesel Oil enhanced by Rs5.46 and 5.92 per litre, according to a notice issued by Finance Division.
• The Large-Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) of the country witnessed a growth of 2.25% YoY during July’21 compared to the same month last year.
• The Monetary Policy Committee of SBP will meet on Monday, September 20, 2021, at SBP Karachi to decide about the Monetary Policy. Later on, SBP will issue the Monetary Policy Statement through a press release on the same day.
• The government has so far released an amount of Rs1.625 billion to execute seven ongoing and six new petroleum-related projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2021-22) aimed at accelerating oil and gas exploration activities and achieving self-sufficiency in the energy sector.
• The government has so far released an amount of Rs936.046 million to execute around 17 aviation sector projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2021-22).
• Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in an effort to facilitate overseas Pakistanis has allowed tax-exempted remittances through international exchange companies, money transfer companies and money services businesses from abroad.
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