March 7, 2021 (MLN): The latest weekly roundup is here to update few financial and economic releases, providing a guide to monitor trends in the upcoming week.

• Pakistan's Forex Reserves increased by USD 91.90 Million or 0.46% and the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD 20,133.50 Million on Feb 26, 2021.
• During the week, the PKR gained 98 paisa against the greenback, as the previous week was concluded at PKR 158.1 per USD.
• Pakistan's trade deficit for 8 months (July-February) FY21 was USD 17.54 billion compared to a deficit of USD 15.85 billion from the corresponding period from FY20.
• The overall exports from Pakistan have crossed the USD 2 billion mark for the 5th consecutive month, the Ministry of Commerce announced on Monday.
• The cement sector posted growth of 1.98 percent in February 2021 as compared to February 2020. Total Cement dispatches during February 2021 were 4.577 million tons against 4.489 Million Tons dispatched during the same month of last fiscal year.
• The total sales volume of the Oil and Marketing Companies (OMCs) increased by 26% YoY to record 1.4 MTs in the month of February’21 as compared to 1.11 MTs in the same month last year.
• Pakistan improved its position on the World Bank (WB) Ease of Doing Business Index for the second consecutive year, according to the annual report issued by the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).
• The non-government sector borrowed another net sum of Rs.55.11 billion during the week ended February 19, 2021, which brings the cumulative net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year FY2021 to Rs.346.34 billion. The net borrowing as of the prior week was recorded at Rs.291.23 billion.
• The government of Pakistan has retired Rs.96.91 billion during the week ended February 19, 2021, which brings its total net borrowing for the ongoing fiscal year 2021 to Rs.75.69 billion. As of the prior week, the government had borrowed a net sum of Rs.172.6 billion.
• The total debt of the Central Government during the month of January 2021 surged by Rs. 3.54 trillion or 11% YoY to stand at Rs. 36.53 trillion when compared to Rs 32.997 trillion recorded in January 2020.
• The gross sale of securities by overseas investors during the week ended February 26, 2021, was recorded at Rs.15.6 billion, which is around 36.6 percent higher than the figures recorded last week.
• The Weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the Combined Group increased by 0.61% during the week ended Mar 04, 2021 while the SPI increased by 14.95% compared to the corresponding period from last year.
• Pakistan's Yearly Inflation Rate (New Base 2015-16) in February 2020 was 8.70 percent compared to 5.65 percent in January 2020 and 12.40 percent in February 2020.
• The government has so far released around 91.6 percent of funds against the total allocation of Rs1,8441.230 million to execute eight petroleum sector projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2020-21).
• The federal government has released Rs 479.238 billion for various ongoing and new social sector uplift projects to date under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2020-21.
• The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted an auction on Wednesday in which it sold fixed-rate PIBs worth Rs.84.914 billion for 3, 5, and 10 years.
• The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted an Open Market Operation on Friday in which it injected Rs.1,177.85 Billion into the market for 7 Days.
• The KSE-100 index lost around 520 points during the month of February and closed at 45,865-mark i.e. around 1.12% lower as compared to the closing of the previous month.

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