Pakistan Daily Economy Update - 22 February

Transcription

1. February 22 , 2019 KCCI - eBulletin PKR PKR 138.63 138.50 -0.19% -0.14% KSE-100 index FIPI Pts. $ Mn 40,071 0.94 -0.52% NM** Crude (AP'19) 21-Feb 21-Feb 21-Feb $/bbl 56.79 -0.84% Gold (MA'19) 21-Feb $/oz 1,322.0 -1.16% Gold (10g) Local 21-Feb PKR 59,242 -0.72% Silver (MA'19) 21-Feb $/oz 15.77 -1.66% Cotton(KHI)-40 kg 21-Feb PKR 9,109 -1.17% Kibor-6M 21-Feb % 10.85 -0.01% Forex Reserves 15-Feb FY19 $ Bn 14.79 WoW -0.68% Remittances Jul-Jan 19 $ Bn 12.77 12.22% Exports* Jul-Jan 19 $ Bn 13.23 2.25% Imports* Jul-Jan 19 $ Bn 32.50 -5.152% Trade Balance* Jul-Jan 19 $ Bn -19.26 9.64% -8.42 1.45 16.79% -17.56% 21-Feb Jul-Jan 19 $ Bn $ Bn Jul-Jan 19 Jul-Dec 18 LSM Growth* % % Jul-Jan 19 Avg. CPI Discount Rate % Feb-19 WoW= week, NCCPL, KSE, Sources: KCCI Research, PMEX ** Not Meaningful on week; Current Account Foreign Direct Inv. GBP, 21-Feb-19, 181.8 EUR, 21-Feb-19, 158.0 USD, 21-Feb-19, 139.3 May-18 GBP China ready to help clean Karachi: CG The Chinese Counsel General (CG) in Karachi, Wang Yu, has said that the Chinese govt. is keen to see Karachi a clean city and ready to finance projects for this purpose. The Chinese envoy was speaking at a ceremony held to hand over Chinese garbage tractor and loading bike here at Governor House. Sindh Governor Imran Ismail thanked the Chinese consulate for offering more garbage tractors and loading bikes to the city govt. to keep Karachi clean. Dawn. Aug-18 EUR Nov-18 Feb-19 Source: KCCI Research ; Oanda.com Quote of the Day "Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." C.S. Lewis Chart of the Day 10% 0% 20.39% 6.39% 20% 15.87% 30% 23.99% 40% 22.51% 50% 33.25% Source-Wise Growth in Workers' Remittances to Pakistan 11.64% FBR opposes ‘sin tax’ on tobacco industry FBR has advised against imposition of sin tax on the tobacco industry, arguing that it would cause substantial revenue loss in the range of PKR 25Bn to 30Bn annually. The federal cabinet night could not finalise decision on health levy and it was decided that ministers for finance and health would sit together to sort out finances for the health sector. The News. -1.53 6.21 10.25 SBP, PBS* Major Currencies 195 185 175 165 155 145 135 125 115 105 95 Feb-18 USD PM’s office takes lead in cutting down expenditure: Cabinet told \ The federal cabinet has been informed that the PM's office has taken the lead in cutting down its expenditure by 31% during 7MFY19, resulting in savings of PKR 303Mn. Savings have been made under various heads including pay and allowances, food expenses, motor vehicle fuel and cash rewards. The PM has urged all ministers to ensure that the govt.'s austerity drive is implemented in letter and spirit. BR. Karachi official price list app for daily use items launched Karachiites can now look up official prices of different commodities, including fruit, meat, vegetables, poultry and grocery online before buying them as the city administration has launched an android application — Karachi Price List — for the city. Citizens can also lodge their complaints against price hike through the application, which also has provisions of Urdu and Sindhi languages along with English. Dawn. YoY 1.20% Business, investment cooperation: TDAP signs MoU with three Belgium regions A historic MoU for cooperation in business and investment has been signed by TDAP, jointly with trade and investment bodies of 3 regions of Belgium: Flanders Investment and Trade, Wallonia Export Investment Agency and Brussels Agency for Business Support. This is for the first time that all the three regions of Belgium have jointly signed a MoU with any other country. Pakistan's Ambassador to Belgium, EU and Luxembourg, signed the MoU and said that it was long awaited and will provide very good foundation and frame work for enhancing economic and trade ties between the two countries. BR. 21-Feb 48.80% Govt. plans to fix indicative price of cotton The govt. is planning to fix indicative price of cotton crop in order to encourage cotton growers and control decline in area under cultivation of the crop. Secretary Ministry of National Food Security, while briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee said that establishment of sugar mills in cotton growing areas by influential sugar industry owners is one of the main reasons behind reduction in cotton area. BR. USD-Interbank USD-Open MKT -3.21% India to suffer itself after anti-Pakistan trade moves: Asad Finance Minister Asad Umar has said that India will suffer for its decision to withdraw Most Favored Nations (MFN) status to Pakistan and resultantly imposing 200% duty on its products. The inappropriate and unwise decisions of the Indian govt. on trade with Pakistan would tantamount to harm its own on economy instead of causing any loss to Pakistan. In response to a question on FATF, Umar hoped the global watchdog will give a satisfactory report on Pakistan. Responding to another question, he said that differences with IMF are narrowing down and technical level discussions are an ongoing process. He also said that Pakistan would be among the five largest economies of the world by the end of this century. Dawn. Change Daily 41.70% Commerce ministry bans short-expiry edible imports The Ministry of Commerce, through amendments into the Import Policy Order 2016, has further restricted imports to contain widening trade deficit through banning import of short-life edible products. Edible goods, which have at least 66% of shelf-life remaining would now be allowed to be imported from earlier 50%. The News. Value -4.19% Current account deficit shrinks 16.7% in seven months Pakistan’s current account deficit narrowed 16.79% to $ 8.42Bn during 7MFY19. SBP’s data showed that current account deficit fell 47.6% YoY to $ 809Mn in Jan’19. The reduction in the deficit was greatly aided by efforts to curtail imports of goods and services, while stabilisation measures are also believed to have compressed domestic demand, which eased pressure on non-energy imports. The News. Unit 7.50% Govt. not mulling any change in weekly holiday: Fawad Addressing media reports that the govt. might announce Friday as the weekly off instead of Sunday, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has said that all such rumors are baseless and no change in weekly holiday calendar is under consideration. BR. Date / Period 2.13% KCCI opposes weekly holiday on Friday Acting president KCCI Khurram Shahzad has opposed the reported recommendation to declare Friday as weekly holiday and demanded that it should immediately be discarded. He cautioned that any move to shift weekly holiday from Sunday to Friday will be resisted as it would cut-off Pakistan from many western countries for three-and-a-half consecutive days. The change will prove detrimental for the country's economy and the govt. will not be able to achieve its numerous goals set to pull the economy out of crises, adding that it will terribly hurt the exports to major destinations in Europe, US and other western and far eastern countries where Saturday and Sunday are usually observed as weekly holidays. BR. Economic Indicators List of Indicators 1.95% -8.03% 33 Karachi taxpayers among FBR’s top 50 The FBR has released a list of 150 taxpaying citizens that have contributed the highest taxes, with Karachi-based Saima Shahbaz Malik topping the category for TY18. The FBR has issued lists of the top 50 taxpayers in three categories — individuals, Association of Persons (AoPs), and companies, scheduled to be released to the public today (22nd Feb’ 19). Among the top 50 individual taxpayers, Karachi’s denizens have proved to be the highest contributors, with 33 individuals, followed by 6 from Lahore. In the list of the top 50 taxpaying AoPs, Karachi again leads the list with 17 AoPs, followed by 10 in Lahore. In terms of taxes paid by companies, Karachi heads the list with 21 contributing the highest amounts, followed by 16 companies in Islamabad. In the tabulation of the top 10 taxpayers, former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi ranks at the 5th position. Dawn. -10% Karachi ranks fourth in road accident deaths in world, moot told Speakers at a seminar held in Karachi University (KU) highlighted the gravity of road safety issues in the country and said that Pakistan YoY Growth 7MFY19 YoY Growth 7MFY18 has topped the list of Asian countries having the highest number of deaths in road traffic accidents whereas Karachi ranked 4th in these Source: KCCI Research, SBP kinds of deaths in the world. They pointed out that the annual loss the city suffered due to road accidents was estimated to be PKR 47.8Bn. The share of unfit vehicles (in road accidents) is found to be 5% and there is a dire need to improve road designs. The average Disclaimer fatality age due to road accidents in Karachi is 29 years and 65% victims are youths. Dawn. This report has been prepared by KCCI Research & Development Cell. The information contained herein have been compiled or arrived at based upon Forex reserves fall to $ 14.79Bn information obtained from sources believed to be reliable and in good faith. Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves fell to $ 14.80Bn during the week ended 15th Feb’19, compared with $ 14.90Bn in the previous Such information has not been independently verified. week. Forex reserves held by SBP dropped $ 163Mn to $ 8.04Bn due to external debt servicing and other official payments. Forex icon represents the sole viewpoint of the KCCI R&D Cell, and is reserves of commercial banks increased to $ 6.75Bn from $ 6.69Bn. The News. stated to enrich the readers' understanding of the news item. 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