April 25, 2021 (MLN): The latest weekly roundup covers the latest economic and financial data releases over the past week to keep an eye on next week's trends. 

• Pakistan’s Current Account deficit (CAD) has increased by 52% MoM to $47mn in March 2021, compared with the deficit of $31mn in February 2021.
• Pakistan’s trade deficit in services narrowed by 66.5% to $64 million during the month of March 2021 from $191 million over the previous month on an account of higher export services.
• Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) has received an increased investment of Rs 43 billion by April 20 of this Fiscal Years 2020-21 from the registered Premium Prize Bond of Rs 40,000 and Rs 25000 newly introduced by the institution.
• The Roshan Digital Account (RDA) launched in September last year, has crossed a major milestone and hit the $1 billion mark as overseas Pakistanis continued to show trust in the Central Bank initiative.
• The Weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the Combined Group decreased by 0.4% during the week ended Apr 22, 2021 while the SPI increased by 17.68% compared to the corresponding period from last year.
• Pakistan’s Forex Reserves decreased by USD 7.50 Million or 0.03% and the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at USD 23,212.80 Million on Apr 16, 2021.
• Total nutrient offtake during the month of March 2021 was about 293 thousand nutrient tonnes, showing an increase of 29.2 percent over the same timeframe of 2020.
• The total DAP offtake during the month of March 2021 stood at 144 thousand tonnes, registering an increase of 81.4 percent as compared to the offtake of 79 thousand tonnes in March 2020.
• The overall urea offtake during the month of March 2021 was 343 thousand tonnes, depicting a rise of 13.4 percent as compared to the same period of last year.
• The Banking sector spread for March 2021 marginally decreased by 7 basis points (bps) over the month which brings its latest value to 4.31% as compared to the prior month's spread of 4.38%. In a similar fashion, the spread has alleviated by 88 bps as compared to the same period last year.
• Foreign direct investment in Pakistan stood at $167.6 million during March 2021, showing an increase of 8% MoM against the net inflow of $155 million recorded in February 2021.
• China has retained the top position as a foreign direct investor in Pakistan during March 2021, with a net direct investment of $126 million, followed by the U.A.E and the United Kingdom that invested $13.1 million and $9.8 million, respectively.
• Pakistan’s Power Sector has received the highest net FDI worth $138.9million in March’21, followed by the Financial Businesses and Oil & Gas Exploration sector with net FDI of $13.7mn and $11.8mn, respectively.
• Pakistan's outstanding debts as of March 31, 2021 stand at a heaping sum of Rs.23.9 trillion whereas total debt at the end of the prior month was Rs.23.61 trillion, meaning that around Rs.283.54 billion were additionally borrowed during this month alone.
• United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deferred an outstanding loan payment of $2billion from Pakistan.
• Foreign Investors during the week ended April 16, 2021, purchased net Rs.4.1 billion worth of securities against a net sale of Rs.8.89 billion recorded last week.
• Ministry of Commerce (MoC) released an amount of Rs1,154mn and Rs1,346mn have been released by MoC for the non-textile sector and for the textile sector respectively, under Drawback of Local Taxes and Levies (DLTL) schemes.
• The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved $400 million in financing from the International Development Association (IDA) to support Pakistan in accelerating investments in education and health services in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
• The Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCOE) Thursday approved the “National Electricity Policy” in order to provide the basis for a sustainable competitive electricity market that promotes renewable energy and indigenous resources.
• The non-government sector has retired a net sum of Rs.54.8 billion during the week ended April 09, 2021, which brings the cumulative net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year FY2021 to Rs.369.91 billion. The net borrowing as of the prior week was recorded at Rs.424.71 billion.
• The government of Pakistan has retired Rs.438.22 billion during the week ended April 09, 2021, which brings its total net borrowing for the ongoing fiscal year 2021 to Rs.162.09 billion. As of the prior week, the government had borrowed a net sum of Rs.600.31 billion.
• Resuming an economic activity after the period of strict lockdown bounced back the demand for petroleum products which translated a surge in import bill by 65.8% YoY basis to $1.1billion in March’21. While on an MoM basis, the import of the same product jumped by 37.7%.
• The total export of textile products rebounded in March 2021 as it surged by 10% MoM and 30% YoY(albeit from a low base, due to the Covid-19 lockdown last March) to clock in at $1.35 billion.
• The import bill of the Machinery group has witnessed an upsurge of around 72% YoY/16.5% MoM to stand at $1.07 billion in the month of March 2021.
• Amid higher demand for healthcare products, the overall exports of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Products during the month of Mach’21 witnessed a sharp rise of 97.6% MoM to $147.6million compared to $74.6mn worth of exports in the previous month.
• The trade value of food exports from the country in March’21 stood at $478.6 million, showing an increase of 32% YoY from $362.5mn in March 2020, when the demand was disrupted by the covid-19 pandemic.
• Federal Government has released Rs500.942 billion out of the total allocation of Rs650 billion for various ongoing and new social sector uplift projects to date under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2020-21.

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