January 26, 2020 (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 0.4% during the week ended Jan 23, 2020, while the SPI increased by 19.69% compared to the corresponding period from last year.

• The non-government sector has borrowed another net sum of Rs.25.19 billion during the week ended January 17, 2020, which brings the cumulative net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year FY2020 to Rs.134.81 billion. The net borrowing as of prior week was recorded at Rs.109.62 billion.

• The government of Pakistan has retired an additional sum of Rs.73.03 billion during the week ended January 17, 2020, which brings its total net retirement for ongoing fiscal year FY2020 to Rs.91.87 billion. As of prior week, the government had retired a net sum of Rs.18.84 billion.

• Pakistan's Forex Reserves increased by USD 147.40 Million or 0.81% and the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD 18,271.00 Million on Jan 17, 2020.

• According to the country-wise data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the United Kingdom witnessed the highest profit repatriation during Jul-Dec FY20. It repatriated $176 million, up by 3% YoY. In December 2019, UK repatriated $10.5 million from Pakistan.

• The Foreign investors indulged in excessive buying during the week ended January 17, as the total purchase of securities outweighed total sales by nearly Rs. 102.2 billion i.e. around Rs.71.66 billion higher than last week's numbers.

• Foreign Investment in T-bills has jumped to $138.45 million, showing an increase of 36% DoD in the single session on January 22, 2020. In the preceding session, $102 million of investment was recorded in T-bills from foreigners.

• The total Foreign Investment in Treasury bills (T-Bills) from July 1, 2019 till January 21, 2020 recorded at USD 2.448 billion, this led the overall Foreign Investment to arrive at $3 billion, revealed State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)’s latest data.

• Pakistan's outstanding debts as of December 31, 2019, stood at Rs.20.73 trillion whereas total debt at the end of the prior month was Rs.20.64 trillion, meaning that around Rs.93.53 billion were additionally borrowed during this month alone.

• Pakistan has received nearly $5.78 billion worth assistance after taking into account loans and grants from multilateral, bilateral, Saudi Arabia-Short term loans as well as Commercial Banks during 1HFY20.

• Pakistan’s trade deficit in services stood at $1.79 billion during the first six months of Financial Year 2020, signifying a fall of 17.5%, as compared to the same period of last year.

• The overall exports of petroleum group & coal have witnessed a decline of 46.45% YoY to stand at $28.26 million in December 2019 against $52.78 million of December 2018. Similarly, the imports of petroleum group were recorded at $1.03 billion in December 2019, showing a decline of 8.73%YoY versus $1.13 billion in December 2018.

• Pakistan’s textile exports during Jul- Dec FY20 have increased by 4% YoY as shipments in the first six months increased to $ 6.9 billion from $6.64 billion during the corresponding period of last year. On the other hand, Pakistan imported $979.4 million worth of textile products from foreign countries, marking a significant decline of 27% YoY during the said period.

• The exports of food group witnessed an increase of 10.26% YoY to $2.19 billion during 1HFY20. Whereas, imports of the food group into the country during the period under review were recorded at $2.56 billion, down by 13.48% YoY as per the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

• The overall nutrient offtake during December 2019 was about 797 thousand tonnes, which represented a significant increase of 65.9 percent.

• The DAP offtake during the month of December 2019, was 193 thousand tonnes, representing an increase of 2.3 percent over the corresponding period of last year.

• Urea offtake during the month of December 2019, stood at 1,345 thousand tonnes, showing an increase of 89.2% due to speculations regarding an increase in gas prices.

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