KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will announce monetary policy for next two months on Monday November 23, 2020, a statement said on Thursday.
The SBP said that the Monetary Policy Committee of the SBP will meet on Monday, November 23, 2020 at SBP Karachi to decide about Monetary Policy.
Later on, SBP will issue the Monetary Policy Statement on the same day.
In its previous monetary policy statement on September 21, 202, the central bank kept the policy rate unchanged at 7 percent.
ISLAMABAD: Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has conducted a raid on the office of All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) and impounded relevant records. The raid was conducted on possible anti-competitive activities, a statement said on Thursday.
The CCP said that exercising its powers under Section 34 of the Competition Act 2010, as part of an enquiry launched in May 2020 to investigate the possible anti-competitive activities by the cement manufacturers, carried out a search and inspection of the offices of Chairman and Vice Chairman of APCMA located in Karachi on Thursday.
Two different teams entered and searched the offices of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of APCMA located in Karachi and impounded the relevant record.
The enquiry in cement sector was started based on the information gathered through various media reports, and concerns and complaints expressed regarding a concurrent increase in cement prices, particularly during the month of April 2020.
The reports indicated that an increase ranging between Rs. 45 – Rs55 per cement bag was apparently collectively decided in a meeting of the cement manufacturers held under the umbrella of APCMA.
On September 24, 2020, the CCP had conducted search and inspection of the APCMA main office and the office of Senior Vice Chairman of the APCMA’s Executive Committee; a senior employee of a major cement company in Lahore.
Moreover, the impounded record, including Whatsapp messages and emails, warranted conducting search and inspection in the South Zone as well for obtaining evidence relating to anticompetitive practices.
The evidence suggests possibility of a cartel/collusive arrangement between the cement manufacturers.
It is pertinent to mention that various factors among others lower demand of cement in the first two quarters of 2020, and almost parallel increase in cement prices and data collected from Pakistan Bureau Statistics and the cement companies, became the basis of CCP’s enquiry and the earlier search.
Sudden rise in price by the cement manufacturers at a time when there is low demand compared to the installed capacity of the manufactures and considering that input fuel cost (coal and oil), transportation and interest rate have declined raises suspicion of a collective rise in price by cement companies.
It is pertinent to mention here that the cement sector has a history of collusive activities and they have been penalized in the past to an amount of collectively more than Rs. 6.3 billion on account of forming a cartel and involvement in the prohibited agreements in violation of Section 04 of the Act.
In 2012 the Commission again initiated enquiry against cement companies, however the same could not be proceeded and concluded due to stay order granted to cement companies by the Lahore High Court. The current enquiry was initiated in 2020.
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The Pakistani Rupee (PKR) continued its downward trend against the US Dollar on Thursday, depreciating by 79 paisas in the interbank market. The rupee closed at Rs160.62 against the dollar, compared to the previous day’s rate of Rs159.83, as demand surged for import and corporate payments.
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KARACHI: The liquid foreign exchange reserves of the country have crossed over $20 billion by week ended November 13, 2020, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.
The foreign exchange reserves of the country increased by $178 million to $20.085 billion by week ended November 13, 2020 as compared with $19.907 billion a week ago.
The foreign exchange reserves of the central bank increased by $190 million to $12.931 billion by week ended November 20, 2020 as compared with $12.741 billion a week ago.
The foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks fell by $12 million to $7.154 billion by week ended November 13, 2020 as against $7.166 billion a week ago.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced on Thursday that the country has achieved a current account surplus of $1.16 billion during the first four months (July – October) of the fiscal year 2020/2021. This marks a significant turnaround from the same period last year, when Pakistan recorded a current account deficit of $1.42 billion.
(more…)KARACHI: The official estimates of Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment (BEOE) revealed that over 100,000 overseas job for which the recruitment process was going on in Pakistan, was disrupted due to COVID and is not going to recover unless the recruiting projects are revived.
The bureau categorizes this category as a potential loss, according to a report of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released on Wednesday.
According to the official estimates of BEOE, more than 8.8 million Pakistanis were living abroad as of December 2017. Of these, 54 percent resided in the Gulf region, and the rest in other destinations, including Europe, UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
Furthermore, during the last three years, around 1.7 million people left for different destinations, of which around 98 percent proceeded for employment in the Gulf region and only a small fraction went to acquire permanent residency in high-income countries.
During the Covid-19 crisis, BEOE records reveal multiple channels of potential job losses for migrant Pakistanis.
Around 50,000 Pakistani migrants faced layoffs in different countries. These jobs may not be recovered in the short term and are thus extremely vulnerable.
Around 60,000 Pakistanis were recruited for overseas work, but could not proceed abroad due to travel restrictions and suspension of flight operations. The Bureau also categorizes these jobs as extremely vulnerable.
In addition to these, 50,000 emigrants (Azaad Visa excluded) returned on paid/unpaid leaves as of June 2020. These workers have not been laid off, but their job continuation entails risk.
For most of the returning workers, the lockdowns resulted in permanent cessation of income along with the loss of legal status and end of accommodation and health benefits associated with employment. In case of forced dismissals, workers also did not receive compensation, and other dues and therefore found it difficult to arrange travel expenses on their own.
The recent figure of stranded Pakistanis in different destinations is highly skewed towards the Gulf region with more than 91 percent in only two countries, i.e., Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
ISLAMABAD: The exports of textile products have increased by 3.78 percent to $4.76 billion during first four months (July – October) of 2020/2021, according to data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Wednesday.
The exports of textile products were $4.58 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The textile exports were able to post positive growth due to better performance in knitwear, bedwear, towels and readymade garments.
The export of knitwear registered 12.3 percent growth to $1.18 billion during the first four months of current fiscal year as compared with $1.05 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The export of bedwear posted a 10 percent increase to $899 million during July – October of the current fiscal year as compared with $818 million in the same period of the last fiscal year.
The export of towels increased by 12.35 percent to $283 million during the period under review as compared with $252 million in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The export of readymade garments registered an increase of 4.66 percent to $947 million during the first four months of the current fiscal year as compared with $905 million in the same period of the last fiscal year.
The export of raw cotton and cotton this year posted negative growth of 95.72 percent and 40.56 percent, respectively during the two periods under review.
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KARACHI: Pakistan has imported mobile phones worth Rs92.8 billion during the first four months of the current fiscal year, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Wednesday.
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ISLAMABAD: The import of motor cars has climbed up by 185 percent during first four months (July – October) of current fiscal year 2020/2021 after ease in coronavirus lockdown.
The import of Completely Built Units (CBU) motor cars increased to $58 million during July – October of the current fiscal year as compared with $20.24 million in the same period of the last fiscal year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Wednesday.
Industry experts said that as coronavirus lockdown eased in Pakistan as well as in other countries, the overseas Pakistanis cleared the motor vehicles under various schemes granted by the government.
The commercial import of motor cars is not allowed in Pakistan. However, Pakistanis are allowed to bring motor vehicles under schemes including transfer of residence, gift scheme and personal baggage.
In the past these scheme were grossly misused and the government while taking strict action imposed restriction that clearance of motor vehicles would only be allowed on payment of duty and taxes out of those amount which was remitted into Pakistan with evidence of banking channels.
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In a significant move aimed at streamlining and modernizing tax refund processes, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has ceased the manual processing of income tax refunds.
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