April 26, 2020 (MLN): The latest weekly roundup is here to update the financial and economic data releases as they provide a guide to keeping an eye on trends in the upcoming week.

• The Weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the Combined Group increased by 0.62% during the week ended Apr 23, 2020 while the SPI increased by 7.9% compared to the corresponding period from last year.

• Pakistan's Forex Reserves increased by USD 4.80 Million or 0.03% and the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD 17,300.30 Million on Apr 17, 2020.

• Pakistan’s trade deficit in services stood at $2.44 billion during the first nine months of Financial Year 2020, signifying a fall of 30%, as compared to the same period of last year.

• Pakistan’s current account deficit improved by 73 percent in July-March to USD 2.768 billion compared to 10.284 billion from the corresponding period last year.

• Pakistan’s import bill has come down by 16% during Jul-March FY20 to stand at $32.93 billion, and in the month of March, it has declined by 7% MoM and 19% YoY to $3.32 billion. Among Pakistan’s top trading partners, China is the country where Pakistan imports the most.

• Total export earnings of Pakistan as per Balance of Payment clocked in at $18.25 billion where the USA remained the top export destination of the Pakistani products during Jul-March FY20, followed by China and the UK.  

• Petroleum, Agriculture Products & Chemicals, and Machinery are the major commodities that Pakistan imported during the month of March 2020.

• Pakistan’s export performance remained depressing during Jul-Mar FY20, as it only increased by 1% YoY to $18.25 billion as compared to $18.05 billion recorded during Jul-Mar FY19.

• Asian Development Bank has assured to provide 1.7 billion dollars to Pakistan to fight the impacts of coronavirus.

• The government has cut profit rates on National Savings Certificates, with new rates taking effect from April 24, 2020. According to a notification issued in this regard, the profit rate has been cut by 1.86% to 8.54% on defense certificate, and by 1.92% to 10.32% on behbood and pension certificates.

• The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet Wednesday approved the release of Rs 75 billion from Prime Minister’s Relief Package of Rs200 billion for targeted payments to the low-income groups, especially laborers and daily wagers most severely affected by the lockdown situation in the country.

• The State Bank of Pakistan has received $1.39 billion under rapid financing instruments by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

• Central Development Working Party (CDWP) meeting on Wednesday presided over by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan. CDWP approved 03 projects worth Rs12. 12.55 billion and recommended 02 projects worth Rs. 196.6 billion to ECNEC for consideration.

• The Transport group imports during the third quarter of the current financial year reduced by 42.51 percent as compared to the corresponding period of the last year.

• Pakistan's outstanding debts as of March 31, 2020 stand at a whopping sum of Rs.21.49 trillion whereas total debt at the end of the prior month was Rs.20.61 trillion, meaning that around Rs.876.55 billion were additionally borrowed during this month alone.

• The imports of various medicinal products during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year declined by 8.54 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.

• The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs.38.29 billion during the week ended April 10, 2020, which brings its total net borrowing for the ongoing fiscal year 2020 to Rs.993.44 billion. As of prior week, the government had borrowed a net sum of Rs.955.14 billion.

• The non-government sector has borrowed another net sum of Rs.8.8 billion during the week ended April 10, 2020, which brings the cumulative net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year FY2020 to Rs.325.08 billion. The net borrowing as of prior week was recorded at Rs.316.28 billion.

• Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Pakistan witnessed a severe economic blow in the form of foreign disinvestment of $1.63 billion during the month of March 2020.

• Disinvestment in fixed income securities let the rout as foreign investors pulled USD 1.628 billion out of the country in the month of March 2020.

• The imports of Agriculture & Other Chemical Products and Metals witnessed a decline of 15.22% and 18.14% YoY during Jul- March FY20 to $5.57 billion and $3 billion respectively, compared to re

• The import bill of the Machinery group has witnessed a decrease of around 15% YoY/MoM to clock in at $623 million in the month of March 2020.

• The exports of the food group witnessed a decrease of 14.65% YoY and 23% MoM to stand at $362 billion in the month of March 2020. While the imports of the food group into the country were recorded at $406 million i.e. around 3.58% YoY higher as compared to the same period of last year whereas 19% MoM lower when compared to the previous month.

• International investors further withdrew $63 million from the local debt market yesterday, bringing the total net outflow for the day in government securities to clock in at $59 million. as inflow of $4 million also witnessed in T-bills.

• International investors resumed their prevailing practice of escaping from the local debt market as after witnessing an inflow of $200 million in government securities (T-bills) on April 20, 2020, the country again witnessed an outflow of $57.978 million in the subsequent two sessions.

• Contrary to the prevailing practice of escaping from the local debt market, after a month, foreign investors invested $200.36 million in government denominated T-bills on Friday i.e. April 17, 2020, the day after the MPC in its emergency meeting slashed policy rate by further 200 bps to 9%.

• The federal government has so far authorized the release of Rs 522.22 billion for various ongoing and new social sector uplift projects under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2019-20, as against the total allocation of Rs701 billion.

• The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) has achieved a collection net target of Rs167 billion by April, 17 of the fiscal year 2019-20.

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