Month: October 2021

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation rate has reached 14.31% after an increase of 1.23% on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the combined index was at 163.44 on October 28, 2021, as compared to 161.46 on October 21, 2021, while the index was recorded at 142.98 a year ago on October 29, 2020.

During the week under review, out of 51 items, prices of 25 (49.02%) items increased, prices of four (7.84%) items decreased and prices of 22 (43.14%) items remained stable.

The SPI for the current week recorded an increase in the prices of tomatoes (11.42%), potatoes (6.05%), LPG (3.89%), sugar (3.74%), eggs (3.16%), electricity for Q1 (2.98%), mustard oil (1.39%), gur (1.36%), chicken (1.09%) and cooking oil 5-liter (1.08%) with the joint impact of (1.18%) into the overall SPI for a combined group of (1.23%).

On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the prices of onions (5.49%), bananas (3.51%), pulse Moong (0.80%), and garlic (0.38%). According to the PBS data, the year on year trend depicts an increase of 14.31%, LPG (80.06%), electricity for Q1 (65.91%), mustard oil (47.88%), vegetable ghee 1-kg (44.61%), cooking oil 5-liter (42.30%), chilies powdered (33.43%), petrol (32.22%), chicken (31.52%), diesel (28.91%), washing soap (27.98%) and garlic (24.37%), while major decrease observed in the prices of tomatoes (47.12%), onions (35.9%), pulse Moong (32.33%), potatoes (19.24%) and pulse Mash (0.79%).

The weekly SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI across all quantiles ranged between 1.01% and 1.4%. The lowest income group witnessed a weekly increase of 1.29% while the highest income group recorded an increase of 1.4%. On a yearly basis, analysis of SPI change across different income segments showed that it increased across all quantities ranging between 12.40% and 15.01%.

It is pertinent to note that the weekly inflation went up by 1.38%, 0.20%, and 1.21%, respectively, by weeks ended on October 21, October 14, and October 07.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities increased from $122.199 billion by the end of June 2021 to $125.876 billion by the end of September 2021, registering an increase of $3.677 billion.

This was revealed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in an in-camera meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Economic Affairs Division that was held with Mir Khan Muhammad Jamali in the chair.

The meeting entailed a detailed briefing about Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities, with break-ups from 2008 to 2013, 2013 to 2018, and 2018 to date, and the disbursement of funds for the ongoing portfolio, both in bilateral and multilateral projects.

The State Bank of Pakistan is yet to release the data for the external debt and liabilities for the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

According to the documents presented to the committee, the external debt and liabilities were $46.161 billion by the end of June 2008, $60.899 billion by the end of June 2013, $95.237 billion by end of June 2018, $122.199 billion by the end of June 2021, and $125.876 billion by the end of September 2021.

Additionally, the external public debt inflows budget was estimated to be $17.199 billion for 2021-22 while the outflows for this period were projected to be $12.278 billion, which is the estimated net balance is $4.911 billion for the current financial year.

The external public debt inflows were $14.783 billion in 2020-21 while the outflow was $8.551 billion and the net balance was $6.232 billion.

The documents also revealed that external public debt inflow was $25.007 billion during 2008-09 to 2012-13 and outflow was $19.065 billion; the inflow was $49.762 billion inflow during 2013-14 to 2017-18, and the outflow was $27.071 billion, and the inflow was $38.868 billion between 2018-19 and 2020-21, and the outflow was $29.041 billion.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Hackers targeted a section of the computer system at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) on Friday and caused disruption in payments for thousands of public sector employees.

In the late hours of the 29th and early morning of the 30th of October, the cyberattack on NBP servers was detected which impacted some of its services. Immediate steps were taken to isolate the affected systems. At this point, no customer or financial data has been compromised. Remediation efforts are underway using industry-leading subject matter experts including international resources wherever required.

NBP President, Arif Usmani, has confirmed the news of the cyberattack. He said the hackers failed to gain access to the NBP’s main servers, though they did take control of some of the computers running Microsoft’s software. The cyberattack was launched on the night between Friday and Saturday, Usmani said.

The cyberattack disrupted NPB services throughout the country, prompting fears that the payment of salaries and pensions to public sector employees would be delayed, reported a national daily.

While currently NBP’s services to its customers are disrupted, the bank is working with the State Bank of Pakistan to address the breach and is confident that essential customer services will be restored by Monday morning.

The attack comes at a time when Pakistan is aggressively looking to adopt the digital mode of payments, with the regulators and authorities pushing for ways to increase documentation of the economy.

Source: Pro Pakistani