Weekly Economic Roundup

January 03, 2020 (MLN): The financial highlights of the country are brought to light with the economic and financial data releases over the course of the week.

• Pakistan's Yearly Inflation Rate (New Base 2015-16) in December 2020 was 7.97 percent compared to 8.35 percent in November 2020 and 12.60 percent in December 2019.
• Pakistan’s exports for the month of December 2020 have grown by 18.3% to USD 2.357 billion as compared to USD 1.993 billion in December 2019, showing an increase of USD 364 million over December 2019.
• The Weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the Combined Group decreased by 0.69% during the week ended Dec 31, 2020 while the SPI increased by 6.13% compared to the corresponding period from last year.
• Pakistan's Forex Reserves decreased by USD 59.10 Million or 0.29% and the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD 20,254.00 Million on Dec 24, 2020.
• Multinational companies operating in Pakistan repatriated $748.1 million in profit and dividends on investments in the country during five months of FY21 which was 11.64% higher than the profits of $670.1 million repatriated in the corresponding period of last year.
• Prime Minister Imran Khan approved a minimum increase of Rs2.31 per litre for Petrol and Rs 1.8 per litre for Diesel against the recommendations forwarded by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA).
• The non-government sector has borrowed a net sum of Rs.59.89 billion during the week ended December 18, 2020, which brings the cumulative net borrowing for the ongoing fiscal year FY2021 to Rs.52.86 billion. The net retirement as of the prior week was recorded at Rs.7.03 billion.
• The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs.156.41 billion during the week ended December 18, 2020, which brings its total net borrowing for the ongoing fiscal year 2021 to Rs.333.99 billion. As of the prior week, the government had borrowed a net sum of Rs.177.58 billion.
• The Cabinet Committee has decided to initially purchase 1.2 million doses of the vaccine from the Chinese company Sinopharm, which will be provided free of cost to frontline workers in the first quarter of 2021.
• The federal government has approved an increase in electricity tariff up to 18 paisas per unit for all consumers except those of Karachi effective from December 1, 2020.
• Around 11 wind projects with a cumulative capacity of 660 MW had already achieved financial closing and are likely to start generation by December 2021.
• The federal government has released Rs 55,205 million for National Highway Authority (NHA) projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2020-2021.
• Information Technology & IT-enabled Services (ITeS) export remittances comprising of computer services and call center services have surged to US $648.940 million at a growth rate of 38.16% during July-November of FY 2020-21, in comparison to the US $469.713 million during July-November of FY 2019-20. 

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