May 24, 2020 (MLN): The financial snapshot of the country in full detail is highlighted with the economic and financial data releases over the course of the week.

• The Weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the Combined Group increased by 0.66% during the week ended May 21, 2020 while the SPI increased by 9.65% compared to the corresponding period from last year.

• The Banking sector spread for April 2020 narrowly curtailed by 1 basis points (bps) over the month which brings its latest value to 5.18% as compared to the prior month's spread of 5.19%. Likewise, the spread has curtailed by 50 bps as compared to the same period last year.

• The Balance of Payment during April 2020, as per the records maintained by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), showed a deficit of $1.93 billion, showing a rise of 15 percent over the previous month but a decline of 22 percent over the same month of last year.

• The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet Thursday approved Mobile Device Manufacturing Policy to promote local manufacturing and assembly of mobile phone handsets.

• Another outflow of $5.12 million from the government’s Treasury bills (T-bills) was recorded on May 20, 2020, bringing the total net extraction by the foreign investors from the local market to clock in at $8.63 million.

• Pakistan's Forex Reserves decreased by USD 126.20 Million or 0.67% and the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD 18,618.30 Million on May 15, 2020.

• The overall DAP offtake during the month of April was 151 thousand tonnes, which depicts an increase of 74.9 percent over April 2019.

• The total nutrient offtake during April 2020 was about 267 thousand tonnes, which is 12.6 percent higher than the offtake of April 2019.

• Foreign investors continued to offload from local securities during the week ended May 15, 2020, with net selling to Rs 1.918 billion, which is down by Rs 23.57 billion than the figures recorded last week.

• Pakistan's Current Account Deficit (CAD) during July-April FY20 has decreased by 71% YoY to stand at $3.343 billion compared to the deficit of $11.449 billion in the corresponding period of last year.

• Pakistan's outstanding debts as of April 30, 2020 stand at a whopping sum of Rs.21.89 trillion whereas total debt at the end of the prior month was Rs.21.55 trillion, meaning that around Rs.344.37 billion were additionally borrowed during this month alone.

• Pakistan has acquired $7.381 billion foreign assistance during Jul-April FY20 from bilateral and multilateral development partners, foreign commercial borrowing, and commodity financing from Islamic Development Bank and Saudi Arabia.

• The non-government sector has retired a net sum of Rs.30.13 billion during the week ended May 08, 2020, which brings the cumulative net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year FY2020 to Rs.286.24 billion. The net borrowing as of prior week was recorded at Rs.316.37 billion.

• The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs.185.95 billion during the week ended May 08, 2020, which brings its total net borrowing for the ongoing fiscal year 2020 to Rs.1,301.07 billion. As of prior week, the government had borrowed a net sum of Rs.1,115.12 billion.

• The Foreign Direct Divestment in Pakistan during the month of April 2020, totaled $511.5 million, which is lower by around 69 percent as compared to the previous month and 43 percent as compared to the same month of last year.

• According to the data released by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), shows that among 5 top investors in Pakistan, the US, UK, and UAE showed divestment except for China during the month whereas no investment or divestment was made by Norway in Pakistan during April 2020.

• After witnessing a blow of investment slippage from the Pakistan debt market, the outflow seems to have slowed down in the month of May 2020 as some inflows in government’s debt securities particularly PIBs have been observed alongside inflows in T-bills.

• The mobile imports during April 2020 showed a decline of 57% MoM and 36% YoY to $47 million.

• Central Development Working Party has approved six projects worth over 16 billion rupees in various sectors.

• The government has released funds amounting to Rs287.289 million during the first 11 months of the current fiscal year to execute seven petroleum projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2019-20) against the total allocation of Rs 304.997 million.

• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $300 million emergency assistance loan to strengthen Pakistan’s public health response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and help meet the basic needs of vulnerable and poor segments of society.

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