Weekly Economic Roundup

December 15, 2019 (MLN): The country's financial picture was brought to light with the release of economic and financial data during the week.

• The Weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the Combined Group decreased by 0.83% during the week ended Dec 05, 2019 while the SPI increased by 18.57% compared to the corresponding period from last year.
• Pakistan's Forex Reserves increased by USD 54.90 Million or 0.34% and the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD 16,048.10 Million on Dec 06, 2019.
• The confidence of foreign investors in local equity market increased significantly, as Foreign investors continued to be net buyers for the eighth successive week as the total purchase of securities during the week via Special Convertible Rupee Account (SCRA) outstripped total sale by around Rs. 5.6 million as on December 6, 2019.
• Foreign Currency Deposits during the month of November 2019 stood at $7.7 billion, depicting an increase of 5%YoY.
• Pakistan's trade deficit for 5 months (July-November) FY20 was USD 9.67 billion compared to a deficit of USD 14.44 billion from the corresponding period from FY19.
• The gold imports into the country decreased by 6.72 percent during the first four months of the current financial year (2019-20) as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
• Overseas Pakistanis remitted USD 1.82 billion in the month of November 2019 compared to USD 2 billion in October 2019 showing a decrease of USD 181.14 million over the previous month.
• The sale of passenger cars during the month of November 2019 stood at 8,524 units against the production of 6,744 units, a monthly report by Pakistan Automotive Manufacturer's Association (PAMA) revealed on Tuesday. This translated into a decline of 10.92 percent on a monthly basis and 44.4 percent on a yearly basis.
• Central Development Working Party has approved eight projects worth 31.44 billion rupees while referred three worth 40.22 billion rupees to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council for consideration.
• The State Bank of Pakistan received USD 1.3 Billion, special policy-based loans for macroeconomic stability, energy sector and financial sector reforms from the Asian Development Bank.
• Savings mobilization by the National Savings Schemes (NSS) during July-Oct 2019 clocked in at Rs 80.97 billion, 19% higher than the amount of savings mobilized in July- Oct 2018.
• The non-government sector has retired a net sum of Rs.70.47 million during the week ended December 06, 2019, which brings the cumulative net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year FY2020 to Rs.68.24 billion. The net borrowing as of prior week was recorded at Rs.68.31 billion.
• The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs.155.18 billion during the week ended December 06, 2019, which brings its total net borrowing for the ongoing fiscal year 2020 to Rs.488.11 billion. As of prior week, the government had borrowed a net sum of Rs.332.94 billion.

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