[Dawn] Remittances sent by overseas Paks fell by almost 11 per cent during the first eight months of the current fiscal year.
However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
the inflow depicted a month-on-month increase of 5pc in February after the government and the State Bank of Pakistain (SBP) uncapped the dollar exchange rate to its real market price to the current Rs280 from Rs230 in the last week of January.
The central bank on Friday reported that the remittances totalled $17.994 billion during July-February 2022-23 compared to $20.183bn in the same period of last year, recording a decline of 10.8pc.
The data revealed that the inflows rose 4.9pc to $1.988bn in February from $1.894bn in January. The improvement was a healthy sign but remittances dropped 9.4pc when compared with $2.196bn in the same month last year.
However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
the increase in remittances in February was expected by the market due to very high dollar prices. The uncapping of the exchange rate produced the expected result in the form of a sharp depreciation of the rupee but it changed the trend of inflows.
The remittances were being sent through illegal channels due to lower dollar prices in interbank and open markets whereas the illegal grey market was offering Rs30 to Rs40 per dollar higher rates. In this background, the International Monetary Fund had asked the government to bring the exchange rate on a par with the one prevailing at the Pak-Afghan border.
The uncapping of the exchange rate has not only reduced the smuggling of dollars to Kabul but improved dollar supplies in the open market making it easier for importers to procure greenbacks on their own.
With the advent of Ramazan in the last week of this month, the currency market and banks expect higher inflows as overseas Paks usually send 15 to 20pchigher remittances on account of charities, zakat and higher spending in the holy month.
The SBP data further revealed that inflows from almost all important destinations fell during 8MFY23 compared to the same period of last year, except the United States.
The highest inflow of remittances was from Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...with $4.346bn but it showed a decline of 15.5pc compared to the same period last year.
The second highest inflows were from the United Arab Emirates with $3.197bn but it also noted a decline of 15.3pc compared to the last year.
The only increase of 3pc was noted from the US as it reached $1.972bn during 8MFY23 compared to the corresponding period last year.
Inflows from the UK dipped 5.7pc to $2.631bn, GCC countries 8.9pc to $2.119bn and EU countries 8.6pc to $2.035bn in 8MFY23.
Weekly inflation spikes to 42.27pc
[Dawn] Weekly inflation clocked in at 42.27 per cent year-on-year owing to the rising prices of edible oil, pulses and vegetables, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), is expected to intensify further as the full impact of depreciation, hike in general sales tax rate and higher energy prices has yet to reflect in official data.
Week-on-week inflation remained 1.37pc for the seven-day period ending on March 9, with bananas, chicken, sugar, cooking oil, gas and cigarettes becoming costlier.
The weekly inflation number is the highest since the week ending on Sept 8, 2022, when SPI was 42.7pc. It stayed above 40pc for the first time since Sept 15 last year when the reading was 40.58pc.
Of the 51 items in the SPI basket, prices of 29 items increased while those of eight items decreased. Rates of 14 items remained stable.
During the week under review, the items whose prices increased the most over the same week a year ago were onions (305.23pc), cigarettes (165.66pc), gas charges for the first quintile (108.38pc), diesel (93.82pc), eggs (78.63pc), rice Irri 6/9 (78.14pc), petrol (77.89pc), rice basmati broken (77.27pc), bananas (74.01pc), pulse moong (72.54pc), tea Lipton (66.31pc), pulse mash (56.02pc), pulse gram (55.97pc) and bread (55.36pc).
In contrast, the highest year-on-year fall was recorded in the prices of tomatoes (41.79pc) and chilli powdered (7.42pc).
On a week-on-week basis, the biggest change was noted in the prices of tomatoes (12.43pc), potatoes (11.37pc), onions (9.26pc), sugar (5.48pc), bananas (5.31pc), cooking oil-five litres (4.27pc), wheat flour (4.06pc), vegetable ghee-2.5kg (4.01pc), curd (1.89pc), milk fresh (1.82pc), tea Lipton (1.79pc), rice basmati broken (1.24pc), salt powdered (1.21pc), lawn printed (2pc) and shirting (1.45pc).
Products whose prices saw the highest decline over the previous week were chicken (6.73pc), garlic (2.07pc), pulse moong (0.83pc), eggs (0.77pc), pulse masoor (0.50pc), LPG (0.26pc), firewood (0.12pc) and pulse gram (0.05pc).
The government has been taking strict measures under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, which is likely to slow down economic growth and stoke inflation.
The increase in the policy rate to 20pc, general sales tax rate from 17pc to 18pc on most items and to 25pc on more than 800 imported food and non-food items will further increase retail prices of consumer goods.
The government has already taken a string of measures, including adopting a market-based exchange rate, hikes in fuel and power tariffs, withdrawal of subsidies and higher taxation, to generate revenue for bridging the fiscal deficit.