Category: Uncategorized

Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed around 23% in October to  $1.58 billion as textile value-added exports showed improvement, while imports were down relatively sharply. Exports increased 2.1% to $2.06 billion (last: $2.02 billion). There has been a contraction of 10.3% in imports to $3.65 billion (last: $4.1 billion).

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Pakistan’s Prime Minister announced a relief package for industries by abolishing ‘peak-hour’ tariff for all industries, along with a 50% concession on additional electricity consumption to boost industrialization and increase exports. He said the electricity generated in Pakistan was 25 percent more expensive than in India and Bangladesh, due to which our exports were not…

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The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has launched a “Rolling Spectrum Strategy 2020-23,”. It recommends not to put in place a fixed spectrum cap defined in MHz.  Operators with a higher than 35%/40% of all mobile spectrum will be barred from an impending auction. The PTA/Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) can consider using a percentage share of…

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Pakistan’s stock market’s price – earnings ratio as of end October 2020 was 12.94.   More details are available at the sector and scrip level. Details are at Publications.

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Foreign investors divested $430.4 million from debt assets in Pakistan and invested $150 million in GOP papers during the July – October of FY21. There were debt outflows of $279 million in October; foreign investors sold $251 million worth of treasury bills and $41 million worth of equities.

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The World Bank (WB) has projected a 9% growth in remittances for Pakistan totaling about $24 billion in 2020. The World Bank in its latest report, “Migration and Development Brief 33, Phase II Covid-19 Crisis through a Migration Lens”, stated that in both Pakistan and Bangladesh, the negative impact of the Covid-19–induced global economic slowdown…

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The World Bank projected that the amount of money migrant workers send home is expected to fall 14% by 2021 compared with levels before the COVID pandemic in 2019.   Flows of remittances to low and middle-income countries are set to fall by 7% to $508 billion in 2020, before a further decline of 7.5%…

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Profit and dividends repatriated by multinational companies increased 65.1% to $576.8 million in the 1QFY21 (last: $349.2 million), mainly because of better corporate profitability, relaxed conditions and recovering economic activity.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) experienced an in increase in the registration of companies in September as 2,365 new companies registered in September. This is an increase of 69% over last year.   Of newly registered companies, 68% were registered as private limited companies, 29% as single member companies and 3% percent…

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Hong Kong’s markets watchdog fined Goldman Sachs’s Asian business $350 million for its role in Malaysia’s multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal, the largest single fine ever levied by the regulator in the Asian financial hub. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said serious lapses and deficiencies in management controls at Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C. had contributed…

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) lowered Pakistan’s GDP growth rate to 1% and 0.5% respectively against the GOP’s projection of 2.1% for the current FY21. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has yet to release the updated GDP growth projection.

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Bahrain and Israel signed a joint communique to formalize their ties. This was disclosed during a visit by an Israeli and US delegation to Manama to broaden cooperation that Washington has promoted as an anti-Iran bulwark and potential economic bonanza.   Bahrain has followed the United Arab Emirates in agreeing last month to normalize ties…

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