Weekly Economic Roundup

August 30, 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 decreased by 0.14% during the week ended Aug 27, 2020 while the SPI increased by 8.39% compared to the corresponding period from last year.

• Pakistan's Forex Reserves increased by USD 66.90 Million or 0.34% and the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD 19,722.40 Million on Aug 21, 2020.

• Pakistan’s current account balance has swung into a surplus of $424 million in July 2020. This surplus during the month is emanated from higher workers' remittances and recovery in exports on a sequential basis.  

• Pakistan’s trade deficit in services stood at $362 million during the month of July 2020, signifying an increase of 62%, as compared to the previous month and a decline of 14% as compared to the same period of last year (SPLY).

• Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) has increased the profit rates on selected saving schemes ranging from 5 to 90 basis points. According to its website, the profit rate on Defense Saving Certificates has increased by 5 bps to 8.49% from 8.44%.

• Pakistan’s total external debt and liabilities by the end of FY20 stood at $112.85 billion, signifying a growth of 6% YoY, as during FY19 it was $106.35 billion.

• Pakistan’s total debt servicing (principal and interest) by the government in FY20 increased to a total of $14.578 billion from $11.589 billion in the FY19, showing a growth of 26% YoY.

• The overall exports of the textile group witnessed a decline of 19% YoY to $989.16 million during the first month of FY21 i.e. July 2020.

• The U.S.A has retained its position as the top export destination for Pakistan during the first month FY21, followed by United Kingdom (UK) and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

• The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) under its refinancing scheme for protecting businesses from the impact of coronavirus (COVID19), has so far deferred Rs644,083 principal repayments of loans up to one year.

• The cement exports witnessed a decrease of 9.77 percent during the first month of the current fiscal year 2020-21, against the exports of the corresponding period of last year.

• Total nutrient offtake during July, 2020 was about 498 thousand tonnes, which was 24.7 percent higher than July 2019. Among the nutrients, nitrogen offtake increased by 25.2 percent, phosphate by 22.8 percent, and potash offtake by 44.1 percent.

• The total DAP offtake during the month of July 2020 was 247 thousand tonnes, which signified an increase of 22.5 percent over July 2019.

• The overall Urea offtake during the month of July 2020 was around 575 thousand tonnes, which shows an increase of 23.5 percent as compared to the same month of last year.

• Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has approved the Audit Policy, 2019 pertaining to Tax Year 2018. The Audit Policy, 2019 shall apply to persons or classes of persons falling under all or any of the three domestic Federal Tax Statutes i.e. Income Tax Ordinance 2001, Sales Tax Act 1990, and Federal Excise Act 2005.

• The Petroleum Division has planned to auction twenty new Exploration & Production blocks during next month.

• Banks disbursed Rs 1,215 billion to the agriculture sector during FY 2019-20. This is 3.5 percent higher than the amount disbursed in the previous fiscal year but less than the credit target of Rs 1,350 billion which was set by the Agricultural Credit Advisory Committee (ACAC) in Peshawar in November 2019.

• A joint venture of Baratai Block comprising Oil and Gas Development Limited (OGDCL) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil & Gas Company Limited (KPOGCL) has announced the discovery of gas and condensate from its exploratory Well Siab-1, which is located in District Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

• The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) on Monday announced to strike an oil and gas discovery at Togh Bala Well-1 in district Kohat of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

• The Banking sector spread for July 2020 substantially mitigated by 77 basis points (bps) over the month which brings its latest value to 5% as compared to the prior month's spread of 5.77%. In a similar fashion, the spread has narrowed down by 103 bps as compared to the same period last year.

• Pakistan has received $800 million foreign assistance during the first month of the fiscal year 2020-21 from bilateral and multilateral development partners, foreign commercial borrowing, and commodity financing from Islamic Development Bank and Saudi Arabia to restructure its economy and finance its development projects.

• The Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination allowed pharmaceutical companies to increase prices of medicines up to 10%.

• The non-government sector has borrowed a net sum of Rs.852.15 million during the week ended August 14, 2020, which brings the cumulative net retirement for ongoing fiscal year FY2021 to Rs.130.89 billion. The net retirement as of prior week was recorded at Rs.131.74 billion.

• The government of Pakistan has retired an additional sum of Rs.44.56 billion during the week ended August 14, 2020, which brings its total net retirement for ongoing fiscal year FY2021 to Rs.256.81 billion. As of prior week, the government had retired a net sum of Rs.212.25 billion.

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