Monthly economic outlook highlights hike in remittances, exports, imports   

ISLAMABAD: Finance ministry on Tuesday released a monthly economic outlook for the month of August 2021, highlighting an increase in remittances, imports, exports and current account deficit, ARY NEWS reported.

The report further highlighted a decline in non-taxable income and direct foreign investment (FDI).

According to the details provided in the monthly economic outlook, the remittances saw a 10.4 percent during the first two months of the ongoing fiscal year 2021-22.

The report further stated that the FBR tax collection continued to increase, exceeding the target set for the month of July. The provisional net tax collection grew by 42.5 percent in July, FY2022 to stand at Rs 414.0 billion against Rs.290.5 billion in the same period last year.

In July, FY2022, domestic tax collection increased by 43.6 percent to Rs 348.4 billion against Rs 242.6 billion in the comparable period of last year. Within the domestic collection, direct tax grew by 36.5 percent, sales tax 51.8 percent and FED by 24.2 percent.

The current account deficit remained at 4.1 percent of the GDP as it remained at US$2.3 billion during the first two months of the fiscal year.

The Current Account posted a deficit of $ 773 million (2.8 percent of GDP) for July FY2022 as against a surplus of $ 583 million (2.4 percent of GDP) last year.

The report stated that the Current account deficit widened due to the constantly growing import volume of energy and non-energy commodities, along with a rising trend in the global prices of oil, Covid-19 vaccines, food, and metals.

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Exports grew by 19.7 percent during July 2021 and reached US$ 2.3 billion in July 2021 ($ 1.9 billion last year).

The loans provided to the agricultural sector remained at 7.5 percent while large-scale manufacturing also witnessed an increase of 2.3 percent.

The rate of inflation stood at 8.4 percent in the country, the report stated while highlighting that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reserves stood at US$26.32 billion.