PAR News - Fri, 16 Sept 2022

‍TOPLINE

• Pakistan’s textile group exports witnessed a growth of 4.18 percent during the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year 2022-23.
• Heavy supplies of commodities towards flood-hit areas cause a spike in wheat flour prices in Punjab.
• Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce expressed reservation on Thursday to the Sindh government’s announcement of fixing the Rs 4,000 rate of 40 kilogrammes of wheat in the province due to high rates.
• Khanpur Dam’s water contaminated by pollutants discharged into the reservoir meant for providing clean drinking water to the residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
• Pakistan’s oil and eatables imports grew 11.4 per cent in the first two months of the current fiscal year.
• World Weather Attribution (WWA) finds evidence of climate change exacerbating recent devastating floods and heatwaves; asks Pakistan to seek compensation from developed nations for loss and damage.
• Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) dipped $ 176 million.
• A food crisis is likely to hit Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) as heavy traffic on the Karakoram Highway (KKH) remains suspended.

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COMMODITIES - CROPS, LIVESTOCK & HORTICULTURE

• Textile Group Exports Up in July-Aug: The country’s textile group exports witnessed a growth of 4.18 percent during the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year 2022-23 and remained at $3.056 billion as compared to $2.933 billion during the same period of last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said. [BR]
• Smuggling Bid Foiled: 4,800 wheat and flour bags were seized by the Pindi Food Department on Thursday. [ET]
• Flour Price: Wheat flour prices have begun to rise in Punjab too apparently under pressure of heavy supplies of the commodity towards flood-hit areas, where people have lost their own stock of grain, and smuggling to Afghanistan. [Dawn]
• Wheat Support Price: Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce expressed reservation on Thursday to the Sindh government’s announcement of fixing the Rs 4,000 rate of 40 kilogrammes of wheat in the province, saying the rate was too high. [ET] [The News]

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AGRI-INPUTS, WEATHER, WATER & POWER

• Met Department Blamed for Flood Disaster: The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) came under fire in a recent federal cabinet meeting for making “inaccurate weather forecasts' ' that misled the provincial governments about the measures to counter the climatic disaster – the ongoing floods. [ET]
• Contamination of Water: The water of Khanpur Dam is being contaminated by various kinds of pollutants that are being discharged into the reservoir meant for providing clean drinking water to the residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. [ET]
• Flood Safety Project: Successive governments have failed to find a Rs96 billion fiscal space for a flood protection project, which had been designed in 2015 to erect protection walls and install early warning systems, contributing to the recent catastrophe owing to misplaced priorities. [ET]
• Govt Defers Construction of Breakwater at Gwadar Port: Without having a clear-cut commitment from China to provide a major chunk of its financial support for the construction of breakwater at Gwadar Port with an estimated cost of Rs 42.2 billion, the government has again deferred approval of its much-delayed project till confirmation from the Chinese side. [The News]

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AGRI UPDATES & PAKISTAN POLICY

• Again, Putin Offers the Carrot of Cheap Fuel: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that pipeline gas supplies to Pakistan were possible and part of the infrastructure was already in place, Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported.  Putin and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met on Thursday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Samarkand, in Uzbekistan. [BR] [Dawn] [ET] [The Nation] [Reuters]
• Essential Commodities: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal Thursday directed the concerned stakeholders to ensure the distribution of essential commodities among the masses after the recent floods as there should be no speculations to disturb the market. [BR]
• Floods to Weigh on Agri Production: Fitch Solutions has stated that the severe floods in Pakistan to weigh on agricultural production and exacerbate the country’s external imbalances, and revised real GDP growth forecast for the fiscal year 2022-23 down to 0.2 percent from 0.6 percent previously. Fitch Solutions in its latest report on Pakistan stated that a reduction in crop production will also likely lead to higher inflation, which could in turn prompt the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to tighten monetary policy even more aggressively than we currently expect. [BR]
• Gilgit-Baltistan on Brink of Food Crisis: A food crisis is likely to hit Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) as heavy traffic on the Karakoram Highway (KKH) remains suspended.  Dozens of Gilgit-bound trucks laden with grain bags have been stuck in Kohistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, for almost two months. [ET]
• Pakistan Asked to Seek ‘Climate Compensation’: A scientific study by an international meteorological expert group — World Weather Attribution (WWA) — has found compelling evidence of climate change exacerbating recent devastating floods and heatwave earlier this year and has asked Pakistan to seek compensation from developed nations for loss and damage support along with an immediate push to reduce carbon emissions. [Dawn]
• Agricultural Imports from Wagah Border Post: Chairman Businessmen Group (BMG) Zubair Motiwala and President Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Muhammad Idrees have appealed the government to immediately allow imports of raw cotton and food items including vegetables, fruits, grains and other essential products from India through Wagah border as Pakistan faces severe shortages of all these products because of the devastation caused by flashfloods which completely washed away all the agricultural crops. [BR]
• Oil, Food Imports Rise in July-August: Pakistan’s oil and eatables imports grew 11.4 per cent in the first two months of the current fiscal year to $5.08 billion from $4.56bn a year ago, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Thursday. [Dawn]
• Pishin Border Market to Open Next Month: The Pishin border market between Pakistan and Iran is expected to be opened next month, which will increase free trade between the two countries, remarked Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar. [ET] [The News] [The Nation] [PT]
• Marble Sector Asked to Raise Exports: Federal Minister for Industries and Production Syed Murtaza Mahmood has underlined that exports of Pakistan’s marble sector should be enhanced 10 times as current export shipments of $37 million are much lower than the actual potential that must increase to at least $370 million. [ET]
• Foreign Exchange Reserves: Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) dipped $ 176 million, clocking in at $ 8.62 billion as of September 9, 2022, according to data released on Thursday. [BR]

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INTERNATIONAL – OVERVIEW & MARKET OUTLOOK

• Oil Prices: Oil futures fell about 3% to a one-week low on Thursday on a tentative agreement that would avert a US rail strike, expectations for weaker global demand and continued US dollar strength ahead of a potentially large interest rate increase. [BR]
• Russia China Strategic Ties: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met for their first face-to-face talks since the start of the conflict in Ukraine on Thursday, hailing their strategic ties in defiance of the West. [Dawn] [ET] [PT]
• US Consumer Watchdog Plans to Regulate ‘Buy-Now, Pay-Later’ Companies: The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) plans to start regulating “buy-now, pay-later” (BNPL) companies like Klarna and Affirm Holdings due to worries their fast-growing financing products are harming consumers, the agency said on Thursday. [BR]
• Iran to Join Asian Security Body Led by Russia, China: Iran has moved a step closer towards becoming a permanent member of a central Asian security body dominated by Russia and China, as Tehran seeks to overcome economic isolation imposed by US sanctions. [BR]
• Ukraine Wants to Join EU Single Market: Ukrainian Presi­dent Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday his war-scarred country wanted to join the European single market ahead of a decision on whether to grant Kyiv full EU membership. [Dawn] [UP]
• Opinion: Billionaire gives all for climate - “A half century after founding the outdoor apparel maker Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, the eccentric rock climber who became a reluctant billionaire with his unconventional spin on capitalism, has given the company away.” - By David Gelles [NYT]

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PAKISTAN - REMAINDERS

• Opinion: Imperial ideology - “The legacy of Empire is manifest in the brazen class privilege within Pakistani society, alongside ethnic-national oppression and colonial statecraft. More than ever, however, imperialism lives on through developmental ideologies and practices that emphasise the conquest of nature. The tens of millions who are suffering now are paying the price of the unbridled urge to profit from nature’s despoilation.” - By Asim Sajjad Akhtar [Dawn]

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