Pakistan’s 3-month fiscal deficit at 1.6 pct of GDP

This compared with a fiscal deficit of 1.5 percent in the same period last year. — File Photo

KARACHI: Pakistan’s budget deficit for the first three months of the 2010/11 fiscal year, which runs to next June, was 1.6 percent of gross domestic product, the Finance Ministry said on its web site on Wednesday.

This compared with a fiscal deficit of 1.5 per cent in the same period last year.

Pakistan announced last month a fiscal deficit of 4.7 per cent of GDP, agreed with the International Monetary Fund for fiscal year 2010/11 as part of an $11 billion bailout programme dating from 2008.

Pakistani stocks close near a 29-month high; rupee firms

Pakistan's central bank on Monday announced an increase in its key policy rate to 14 per cent from 13.5 percent. — File Photo

KARACHI: Pakistani stocks, led by the energy sector, ended near a 29-month high on Tuesday despite an increase in the key policy rate the previous day, which dealers said had been factored in by the market.

Pakistan’s central bank on Monday announced an increase in its key policy rate to 14 per cent from 13.5 percent to combat persistent inflation due to government borrowing from the State Bank of Pakistan.

Remittances surge in July-Sept, says WB

New figures published by the State Bank of Pakistan confirmed that remittances during July-September witnessed a surge. — File Photo

ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: Pakistani migrants abroad responded positively to the calls for help from their families and friends back home as flow of remittances recorded a surge following devastating monsoon floods, according to World Bank`s latest "Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011."

This surge during the first three months (July-September) of the current fiscal year was a contrast against the steadily falling remittances for India and Bangladesh, says the report.

Pakistan’s central bank sells 48 bln rupees of T-bills

The State Bank of Pakistan sold 48 billion rupees ($558.7 million) of treasury bills. — File Photo

KARACHI: Pakistan's central bank sold 48 billion rupees ($558.7 million) of treasury bills on Thursday under seven day repo contract at 11.70 per cent to mop up liquidity from the money market.

Weak rupee boosts exports, data proves the contrary

LAHORE: The myth that rupee depreciation boosts exports is not true as exports remained stagnant from 1994 to 1999 despite massive rupee depreciation, but rose appreciably when the rupee was stable from 2003 to 2008, analysis of trade data reveals.

The foreign trade data of past two decades collected by The News showed that devaluation of rupee almost always failed to boost exports that grew during the period when the rupee remained stable against the dollar.

Rupee further gains 21 paisas

KARACHI: The rupee further strengthened its position on Thursday to close at 83.50 against the dollar in the currency market.

According to the weighted average, customer exchange rates issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the rupee gained 21 paisas against the greenback.

Weak rupee adds Rs17bn to debt servicing

ISLAMABAD: Servicing of both domestic and external debt to cost the national kitty Rs664 billion during the current fiscal year as against the budgetary estimation of Rs647 billion due to depreciation of the rupee, officials in the finance ministry told Dawn on Saturday.


The sources said that domestic debt servicing was estimated to be Rs573 billion at the start of the fiscal year, however, upward revised estimates suggested that it would be Rs589 billion owing to inflationary factors and increased short-term loaning by the government for budgetary support and operational expenses.

Rupee gains over dollar amid falling imports

KARACHI: The dollar fell to Rs84 on Thursday reflecting the lower demand with falling imports and sufficient availability of the currency.

“The dollar was traded in the range of Rs83.95 to Rs83.98 in the inter-bank market on Thursday, which was the lowest of this calendar year 2010,” said Atif Ahmed, a currency dealer.

Rupee slide continues

Saturday, January 09, 2010
KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee fell to a new low on Friday for the fifth consecutive day because of high demand for dollars to pay for imports.

The rupee was quoted closing at 84.95/85.02 to the dollar compared with Thursday’s close of 84.79/85.

“The weakest trade for the rupee was made at 84.90,” said a currency dealer in Karachi.

State Bank announces clean note policy

Wednesday, January 06, 2010
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistani (SBP) in order to overcome problems relating to collection, sorting and replacement of soiled notes and to provide better services to the general public, has introduced a self-assessment compliance program for banks with regard to Clean Note Policy (CNP).

Rupee falls to record 84.57 against dollar

KARACHI: The rupee fell to a record low against the dollar on Monday while it already lost almost Re1 since the private sector was given sole responsibility to pay the entire oil bills.
 
The dollar was traded at the maximum price of Rs84.57, which is the highest price dollar ever found in the local market, said currency traders adding that the dollar gained up to 20 paisa on Monday.

Import payment pressure pushes rupee down

Experts say SBP won’t intervene

Tuesday, January 05, 2010
By Saad Hasan

KARACHI: The rupee dropped to a new low of Rs84.65 on Monday, down 0.44 per cent from Saturday’s close of Rs84.25 as importers rushed to buy US dollar to make oil payments, dealers told The News.

The weighted average at which commercial banks bought and sold the dollar was Rs84.33 and Rs84.52 respectively, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said. Average exchange rate on Saturday was Rs84.20 and Rs84.39.

Rupee at lowest this year

Tuesday, December 15, 2009
KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee ended on Monday at its lowest close this year at 84.30/35 to the dollar, compared with Saturday’s close of 84.06/11 because of import payments, especially for oil, dealers said.

The rupee was expected to remain under pressure in the near term and reach 85 to the dollar, they said.

Dealers said there was also pressure as the central bank said commercial banks had to provide foreign currency for imports of crude oil from Monday.

Jul-Nov trade deficit down by 37.57pc due to weak rupee

Figures show exports at $7.61bn, imports at $13bn against $8.2bn and $16.99bn in the same period of last year

Sunday, December 13, 2009
By Israr Khan

ISLAMABAD: Helped by the weaker value of rupee, Pakistan’s trade deficit (an excess of imports over exports) during July-November 2009-10 narrowed by about two-fifth (or $3.29 billion) over the corresponding period of the last fiscal, official figures show.

Although, to some extent the weaker rupee is helping economy in reducing exports-imports gap, yet it is also instrumental for mounting pressures on the country’s external debt (i.e. each dollar debt needs more rupees to retire or service it).

Rupee depreciation

The latest speculative attack on the rupee was not unexpected following the State Bank’s announcement that it will shift the entire burden of arranging foreign currency for making crude-oil-import payments on the private sector from Dec 14. 
 
But the assumption that speculators will cause the rupee to fall sharply any time soon, just as they led it to cumulatively lose almost a quarter of its value in 2008, looks weak. The macro economy is stabilising and the IMF is expected to release the third stand-by-loan tranche of $1.2bn shortly. That should shore up the country’s import cover to seven months and reduce pressure on the rupee. We also know that the State Bank’s decision to transfer the burden of furnace-oil and diesel payments to the private sector in January and August brought the rupee under pressure. The exchange rate has depreciated but only gradually, by 0.5 per cent a month, since February because of higher inflation. Barring isolated speculative raids on the currency, the trend should continue during the rest of the fiscal year.