Pakistan Forecasts 6% Rise in Exports as Power Supply Improves: Bloomberg

By Farhan Sharif and Khaleeq Ahmed

July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s exports are expected to increase six percent this year as the government improves power supply and boosts support for the production of textiles, engineering goods and leather, Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim said.

Overseas shipments in the year that started July 1 are forecast to climb to $18.9 billion from $17.8 billion in the previous 12 months, Fahim said in a televised speech from Islamabad today. He said exports are forecast to increase 10 percent and 13 percent in the following two years.

Pakistan exporters are struggling to find buyers for the nation’s textiles and rice amid what the World Trade Organization says will be the worst contraction in global trade since World War II. HSBC Holdings Plc expects Pakistan’s $146 billion economy to expand as little as 0.8 percent in the year to June 2010, the weakest pace since 1952.

Shipments abroad from Pakistan have been hit by “structural impediments coupled with anemic global demand,” said Rohini Malkani, an economist at Citigroup Inc. in Mumbai. “We seek comfort in the government’s statements to enhance competitiveness.”

Pakistan’s exports may also improve amid signs of a recovery in the global economy. Fahim didn’t set a target for imports or the trade gap.

The International Monetary Fund early this month said the worldwide economic rebound in 2010 will be stronger than it forecast in April as the financial system stabilizes and the pace of contractions from the U.S. to Japan moderates.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan Forecasts 6% Rise in Exports as Power Supply Improves: Bloomberg

Asia Grains-Pakistan sells corn, buyers eye Black Sea wheat: Reuters

By Naveen Thukral

SINGAPORE, July 3 (Reuters) - Pakistan sold around 15,000 tonnes of corn this week mainly to Malaysia as supplies from India dried up, while Asian wheat importers bought 20,000 tonnes of Black Sea wheat on competitive prices and tight Australia supplies.

Pakistan sold corn cargoes in containers at around $190 a tonne, including cost and freight for prompt shipment and more deals are likely as India's export season is nearing an end, regional traders said.

"Pakistani exporters are in the market, negotiating deals," said a Singapore-based grains trader. "I think they will be active, but we don't expect big deals as the market is very volatile."

Traders said Asian grain importers were buying hand-to-mouth, importing smaller quantities in containers on weakening global prices.

"Not many want to take a bulk delivery when the market is falling so much," said a trader who sells wheat and corn cargoes in Asia.

Benchmark Chicago Board of Trade corn futures Cc1 fell to their lowest level in more than four months due to forecasts for crop-boosting weather around the U.S. Midwest and wheat Wc1 hovered around a 3-½ month low on harvest pressure.

While wheat has lost a quarter of its value since the beginning of June, corn is down 22 percent.

"Chicago corn is giving jolt to all the grains," said another trader. "Corn supply prospects have improved and it is pulling everything down."

South Korea was active this week, buying 165,000 tonnes of U.S. and worldwide corn this week, but traders said imports are likely to slow down in the coming weeks.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Asia Grains-Pakistan sells corn, buyers eye Black Sea wheat: Reuters

Pakistan exports to the UK touch highest mark despite recession: APP

LONDON, June 30 (APP): Pakistan’s exports to UK have crossed US $ I billion mark this year for the first time in history. With the growth rate of 16.29 % during the period July 2008- April 2009, Pakistan has seen an all time high export to the UK, which is one of Pakistan’s top three export markets in the world for the last four years from 2005-2006 through 2008- 2009 financial years. Due to dedicated efforts of Commercial Wing of Pakistan High Commission, UK remains among top three markets with balance of trade in favour of Pakistan.

Exports from Pakistan to the UK were worth 1.03 billion during the financial year 2007-2008. The exports mainly constituted such items as textile yarn, rice and cereals, fruit and vegetables and value added items like apparel and clothing accessories, power generating machinery and equipment. Officials at Pakistan High Commission explained that by diversifying products a huge potential of enhancing further exports can be exploited. Three new sectors with export potential to the UK are high quality periods replica furniture, health care items including pharmaceuticals, surgical and beauty care instruments, herbal medicines, hospital linen besides dairy and Halal meat products. In this context the commercial wing of Pakistan High Commission has planned sector specific conferences. A conference for promotion of Healthcare sector is being organized here from July 21 to 23.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan exports to the UK touch highest mark despite recession: APP

Pakistan-Romania trade rises to $63.8m in ’08-09: Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Romania is Pakistan’s important trading partner within the European Union (EU), and Pak-Romania bilateral trade has increased from $25.92 million to $63.80 million in 2008-09.

This was stated by Federal Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim, while talking to Director General Asian Department of Foreign Affairs of Romania, Gheorghe Margheru, who, along with a six-member delegation met him on Thursday. Secretary Commerce Suleman Ghani and other officials of the ministry were also present on the occasion.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan-Romania trade rises to $63.8m in ’08-09: Daily Times

Industrialists blame govt for declining exports: Dawn

SLAMABAD: Representatives of the trade and industry on Monday blamed the government departments and the policy-makers for declining industrial production and exports.

Speaking at the 60th meeting of the Advisory Committee of the ministry of commerce heads of respective trade bodies and associations said that government departments were responsible for slowdown in the economy.

Power outages, high interest rates, attitude of customs officials both at import and export stage, uncooperative attitude of commercial councillors and policy-makers were factors listed by business leaders for depressing exports.

They said that frequent power breakdowns were causing production losses, while high mark-up rates had increased the cost of doing business making Pakistani products uncompetitive at the international level.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Industrialists blame govt for declining exports: Dawn

Malaysia top importer from Pakistan for Jul-Dec: APP

ISLAMABAD, May 11 (APP): Malaysia has emerged as the top importer from Pakistan for the first six months of the current financial year amongst the South East Asian countries with import of US$ 68.65 millions. The Philippines comes at second with import of US$ 39.09 millions, Thailand with import of US& 39.01 million and Vietnam with import of US$ 35.01 million followed.

According to the data released by Trade Development Authority (TDAP) of Pakistan, Malaysia with an import of US$ 68.65 million is amongst the top forty destinations of Pakistani exports and is on 24^th position worldwide.

Data revealed that Malaysia had increased its world share of Pakistani imports from 0.33% in Jul‑Dec‑2007‑08 to 0.77% in Jul‑Dec, 2008‑09 registering two and half times increase i.e an increase of 138% compared to the imports of US$ 28.80 million in the corresponding period of last year(Jul‑Dec‑2007‑08).

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Malaysia top importer from Pakistan for Jul-Dec: APP

Pakistan economic indicators: Forbes

Floating Interbank Rate (Rs/$) 80.23/80.33 80.25/80.35

Rupee/US $ (kerb market) 80.20/80.50 80.30/80.70

Karachi 100-share index 5,707.09 5,557.92

Gold (Karachi) Rs/10 gm n/a 23,618

======CENTRAL BANK AUCTIONS======

Comment On This Story

Treasury Bills Auction Results:

Cut-off Yield (pct) at auction on: Mar 11 Feb 25

Three-months bills 11.6908 12.6091

Six-month bills 11,7845 12.9828

12-months bills 11,8518 13,0044

Pakistan Investment Bond (PIB) Auction Results:

Cut-off Yield (pct) at auction on: Feb 18 (2009) Aug 29 (2008)

11.25 pct coupon, three-Year PIB 13.9530 13.6973

11.50 pct coupon, five-Year PIB 14.3692 B/Rejected

11.75 pct coupon, seven-year PIB 14.7973 14.3398

12.00 pct coupon, 10-Year PIB 14.9444 14.5493

12.50 pct coupon, 15-Year PIB 15.4995 14.7500

13.00 pct coupon, 20-Year PIB 15.8998 No B/Received

13.75 Pct coupon, 30-Year PIB 16.4496 14.9384

======WEEKLY INDICATORS======

Week ending Feb 28 Feb 21

Total liquid frx reserves $10.138 bln $10.166 bln

Forex held by central bank $ 6.687 bln $ 6.734 bln

Forex held by other banks $ 3.451 bln $ 3.432 bln

======MONTHLY INDICATORS======

LAST PVS

Consumer price index Feb 191.90 190.09

Change mth/mth (pct) Feb -0.59 -0.42

Change Yr/Yr (pct) Feb 21.07 20.52

Wholesale price index Feb 194.19 192.91

Change mth/mth (pct) Feb n/a n/a

Change Yr/Yr (pct) Feb 15.03 15.69

Trade Balance Feb $-857 mln $-1.17 bln

Exports Feb $ 1.26 bln $ 1.36 bln

Imports Feb $ 2.12 bln $ 2.53 bln

======ANNUAL INDICATORS======

FISCAL YEAR 2007/08 2006/07

Population (millions) **160.9 156.77

Per capita income **$1085 $925

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan economic indicators: Forbes

Pakistan's Jan trade gap narrows to $1.17 bln: Reuters

KARACHI, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Pakistan's trade deficit narrowed to $1.17 billion in January from $2.05 billion in January 2008, but rose from a deficit of $815.92 million in December, the Federal Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

The deficit in the seven months from July through January of the 2008/09 fiscal year widened to $10.7 billion as compared with $10.4 billion in the corresponding period last year, the data showed.

Exports stood at $1.36 billion in January as compared with $1.31 billion in December and they fell 7.1 percent against January 2007.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan's Jan trade gap narrows to $1.17 bln: Reuters

FDI surged by 45 percent: Business Recorder

RIZWAN BHATTI

KARACHI (January 16 2009): The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has witnessed a raise of some 45 percent during December despite the looming clouds of war between Pakistan and India. The central bank on Thursday revealed that FDI has also crossed the mark of 2 billion dollars during December 2008 with a highest investment of 724 million dollars in a single month during the current fiscal year 2008-09.

"The surged in the FDI is a positive indication and reflected that confidence of foreign investors on Pakistan economy is still retained despite the tensions on Eastern boarders after Mombai attacks," economists said. They said that increasing FDI reflects that country's economic fundamentals are still strong despite several internal and external shocks and have ability to attract foreign investors.

Other economic indicators like foreign reserves and exports are also improving and would attract more investment in the future, they said. "With the current trend we are expecting that country's FDI would be around four billion dollars by the end of current fiscal year 2009", they added.With an increase of some 260.95 million dollars, FDI has reached 2.2327 billion dollars during the first half of current fiscal year 2008-09 (July-December), as compared to 2.0663 billion dollars during the same period of last fiscal year 2008.

Month-on-month basis the country has witnessed highest FDI in December as compared to other first five months of the current fiscal year, as foreign investors have invested some 724.28 million dollars in December 2008.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: FDI surged by 45 percent: Business Recorder

Export of textile, food items increases: The News

ISLAMABAD: Textile exports during the month of November 2008 witnessed increase of 1.22 percent as compared to exports of October 2008. Textile exports during November were recorded at $838 million as against exports $828 million registered in October 2008, according to data released by Federal Bureau of Statistics. However, as compared to the textile exports of the same month of last financial year, exports during November 2008-09 witnessed decrease of 7.2 percent. Textile exports during November (2007-08) were recorded at $903 million.

As compared to October 2008, the export of raw cotton during the month under review was increased by 23.15 percent however, cotton yarn witnessed decrease of 11.02 percent while export of cotton cloth witnessed decline of 3.57 percent. Export of carded cotton was decreased by 56.03 percent, yarn other than cotton yarn by 23.65 percent, towels by 8.77 percent and madeup articles export declined by 8.30 percent.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Export of textile, food items increases: The News

Gwadar Port officially open for business: Dawn

Saleem Shahid

QUETTA: The newly constructed Gwadar Deep Sea Port formally becomes functional on Sunday with starting unloading the first ship anchored at the port that brought imported fertilizer from Qatar, Dawn reported.

The Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping, Nabil Ahmed Gabbol and Balochistan Chief Minister, Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani attended the ceremony held at the port starting offloading the fertilizer.

Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani was also invited at the ceremony but due to his engagement he could not attended the ceremony.

Another huge ship also carrying fertilizer is also reached at the Gwadar port from Qatar on Monday while in next four months over 21 more ships would anchor at the third port of the country after Karachi and Port Qasim.

The Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping, Nabil Gabbol while speaking at the ceremony said that with making Gwadar port functional massive economic activities would be started in Gwadar as it would be prove hub of generating economic activities in the entire region.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Gwadar Port officially open for business: Dawn

EU publishes ‘Blue Book’ on ties with Pakistan: The News

Saturday, December 13, 2008
Mobarik A. Virk

IslamabadContrary to the general perception that the US, or Saudi Arabia or China are the largest economic and development partners/donors of Pakistan, the fact is that the European Union is the largest partner of Pakistan in trade, the development assistance and in strengthening the democratic process! These facts were highlighted in the ‘Blue Book 2008’ prepared by the European Union (EU) and jointly launched here Friday morning by the Ambassador of France, Daniel Jouanneau, and the Ambassador Jan de Kok, the Head of Mission of EU in Islamabad.The ‘Blue Book Pakistan 2008’ is the first edition launched in Pakistan focusing on the cooperation between the European Union and Pakistan in various fields.

“The ‘Blue Book’ highlights EU’s cooperation and assistance in many countries of the world is being published for the past many years. This is the first time that this ‘EU Blue Book’ for Pakistan has been published,” a spokesman for the French embassy told a select group of journalists invited to this launch of the book at ‘French Residence’ on Friday morning.The ‘Blue Book’ highlighted that the EU is Pakistan’s largest export market with EU-Pakistan bilateral trade in the year 2007 being 7.1 billion Euros.

According to the ‘Blue Book’, the EU is the destination of around 20 per cent of Pakistan’s foreign trade. “Due to lack of diversification, textiles and clothing still account for more than 65 per cent of Pakistan’s export to the EU. In 2007, Pakistan export to the EU was 3.4 billion Euros whereas the EU export to Pakistan was 3.7 billion Euros. The EU is also Pakistan’s largest source of foreign direct investment,” the ‘Blue Book’ said.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: EU publishes ‘Blue Book’ on ties with Pakistan: The News

Pakistan conventional products’ exports in Qr. 1 soars by 44pc: The News

KARACHI: Pakistan exports of conventional products during the first quarter of the current fiscal year surged by 44 percent, while those of textile products declined by 0.97 percent. Federal Statistics Department released data said that the exports of conventional products during July-October amounted to $3.023 billion as compared to $2.225 billion in the same period last year. Rice, sports goods, engineering, leather products, footwear, surgical and other products were included among those, whose exports were seen rising.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: Pakistan conventional products’ exports in Qr. 1 soars by 44pc: The News

USDA Attache: Pakistan's 2007-08 Rice Exports Surge: Ali Baba

Editor: Sharon Li
6 Nov 2008 09:49:09 GMT

Unfettered by government intervention or an export ban, Pakistan rice exports surged in MY 2007/08 to an estimated at 4.2 million metric tons, positioning Pakistan to overtake the United States as the world's third largest exporter of rice, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture attache report posted Wednesday on the Foreign Agricultural Services Web site.

Access to last season's strong international prices encouraged farmers to move additional planting area to rice, and as a result, MY2008/09 rice production is estimated to reach a record 6.3 million tons.

In light of this year's bumper crop and the softening of international prices, the Government of Pakistan has announced its intention to purchase one million tons of domestic paddy in an effort to support local prices. The trade is wary of any government intervention in this highly successful, private-sector led market and has responded cautiously to the government's rice procurement scheme.

RICE Production

Based on Government of Pakistan (GOP) data, Post's estimate of MY 2006/07 rice production was increased (5 percent) to 5.45 million metric tons (MMT), the MY 2007/08 production estimate was increased (4 percent) to 5.7 MMT, and the MY 2008/09 estimate increased by (12.5 percent) to a record 6.3 MMT. An expansion in area planted to rice coupled with timely rains and reduced pest activity contributed to this year's record crop production level.

For more on this article, please click on the following link: USDA Attache: Pakistan's 2007-08 Rice Exports Surge: Ali Baba