September 29, 2019 (MLN): The country's current financial and economical snapshot was brought into clearer picture with the following data releases over the course of last week:

• The non-government sector has retired another net sum of Rs.12.94 billion during the week ended September 20, 2019, which brings the cumulative net retirement for ongoing fiscal year FY2020 to Rs.149.32 billion. The net retirement as of prior week was recorded at Rs.136.39 billion.
• The government of Pakistan has retired Rs.1.78 billion during the week ended September 20, 2019, which brings its total net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year 2020 to Rs.102.26 billion. As of prior week, the government had borrowed a net sum of Rs.104.04 billion.
• Data from the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) showed on Thursday that the central bank has increased its holdings of U.S. Treasury securities. For the week ending Sept. 25, the average daily figure of Fed holdings of U.S. Treasury securities rose by 5,315 million U.S. dollars to 2,107,405 million dollars.
• The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs.24.03 billion during the week ended September 13, 2019, which brings its total net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year 2020 to Rs.108.86 billion. As of prior week, the government had borrowed a net sum of Rs.84.83 billion.
• Pakistan's Forex Reserves decreased by USD 125.50 Million or 0.79% and the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD 15,772.60 Million on Sep 20, 2019.
• Profits and dividends repatriated by multinational companies operating in Pakistan during Jul-Aug FY20 fell to $214.7 million from $240.5 million in the same period last year.
• The latest SBP data on advances classified by borrowers shows that in the month of August 2019, the bank advances to private sector surged by 7.8% to an accumulated amount of Rs 4.93 trillion as compared to corresponding period last year.
• The Banking sector spread for August 2019 decreased by 13 basis points (bps) over the month, which brings its latest value to 5.9% as compared to prior month's spread of 6.03%. Alternatively, the spread has enhanced by 107 bps as compared to the same period last year.
• Pakistan acquired nearly $1.5 billion worth of foreign assistance from multilateral, bilateral sources and Commercial banks during the first two months of FY20, signifying an increase of 108% over the same period of the previous year.
• The government has released a sum of Rs1,206.040 million out of total allocation of Rs85,499.359 million, for various water projects under annual Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for fiscal year 2019-20 so far.
• The federal government has so far released Rs 90.6 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 Rs 701 billion.
• Out of the total allocation of Rs42531.230 million for power related projects under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), the government of Pakistan has released Rs139.762 million so far.
• The export of cement from the country during the first two months of current financial year 2019-20 witnessed decline of 13.16 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
• The gold imports into the country increased by 24.28 percent during the first two months of the current fiscal year (2018-19) as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
• Pakistan imported tea worth $65.260 million during the first two months of the current fiscal year, showing decline of 35.36 percent when compared to the imports of $100.954 million during the corresponding period of last year.
• The total DAP offtake during the month of August 2019 was 105 thousand tonnes, which increased by 33.2 percent over August, 2018.
• Urea sales witnessed a rise of 45.01 percent during the month of August 2019, as the total offtake during this period stood at 625 thousand tonnes as compared to the same period of last year.
• Total fertilizer offtake during the month of August, 2019 stood at 393 thousand tonnes, demonstrating an increase of 49.7 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
• Food exports from the country during first two-month of current financial year registered about 14.27 percent as compared the corresponding period of last year.

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