The information on monetary and credit aggregates released by the State Bank remained messy during the week under review. The State Bank has started publishing its balance sheet for the first time since June 25, 2005.
The latest available is for 27th August, 2005. In the meanwhile, it has made available the balance sheet of scheduled banks for the week ended on 17th September, 2005.
A consolidated balance sheet profiling monetary aggregates for any week since after June 25, 2005 is yet to be made available. Naturally, it is not possible to find out what has been the rate of monetary expansion/contraction since the beginning of the new financial year.
However, according to weekly statement of position of scheduled banks as at the close of business on September 17, 2005, scheduled banks'' ''advances- net of provisions'' - mainly to the private sector for general purposes and export sector- which went up by Rs 10 billion last week, rose further by another Rs 7 billion during the week ended on 17th September, 2005 amid rising ''gross advances'' (up Rs 5 billion) and declining provisions (down Rs 2 billion).
This happened despite the fact that the overall size of scheduled banks'' balance sheet squeezed by Rs 2.6 billion over the week.
The squeeze in the balance sheet occurred mainly because of declines of Rs 15 billion in short notice ''lending to financial institutions'', Rs 5 billion in ''balances with other banks'' and Rs 1.4 billion in ''investments'' partly offset by increases of Rs 9.5 billion in ''cash and balances with treasury banks'' besides the above-mentioned increase in ''advances- net of provisions''.
The fall on the liabilities side of the balance sheet was accounted for by declines of Rs 14 billion in ''deposits and other accounts'', Rs 5 billion in ''bills payable'' partly offset by increases of Rs 10 billion in borrowings (including borrowings from the central bank), Rs 2 billion in ''other liabilities'' and Rs 4 billion in liabilities representing ''net assets'' of scheduled banks as ''unappropriated/unremitted profits'' and ''surplus on revaluation of assets'' increased by Rs 3 billion and Rs 1 billion respectively.
On the other hand, total assets/liabilities of Issue Dept. of SBP fell by Rs 16.1 billion to Rs 703.1 billion on August 27, 2005 compared with the last weekend of FY05 on June 25, 2005.
The fall was mainly accounted for by decline of Rs 22.5 billion in holdings of approved foreign exchange partly offset by an increase of Rs 6.4 billion in SBP''s holdings of ''gold coin and silver/gold bullion'' on the Assets Side and a decline of by Rs 16 billion in notes in circulation on the Liabilities Side. In the meanwhile, total assets/liabilities of the Banking Dept. rose by Rs 23.9 billion to Rs 699.2 billion explained, in main, by an increase of Rs 65.8 billion in ''investments in GOP securities'' partly offset by declines of Rs 19.6 billion in holdings of Govt.
T Bills, Rs 14 billion in ''Loans and Advances to Scheduled Banks'' under ''export sector'', Rs 4 billion in holdings of approved foreign exchange, Rs 3.2 billion in ''investments in scheduled banks'' and Rs 1.3 billion in ''Loans and Advances to NBFIs'' under ''others'' on the Assets Side and increases of Rs 8.7billion in deposits of provincial govts., Rs 14.9 billion in deposits of banks, Rs 4 billion in other deposits and Rs 5 billion in other liabilities partly offset by a decline of Rs 14.3 billion in deposits of Federal Govt. on the Liabilities Side. All in all, the balance sheet of State Bank improved by Rs 7.8 billion since June 25, 2005.
The liquid foreign exchange reserves of the country declined during the new fiscal year so far to an all time low of $12,002 million (incl. $9,355 million with SBP and $2,647 million with banks) as at the end of September 17, 2005. Routine debt payments and rising oil import bill have been described as the two main factors leading to the fall.
The cumulative decline since the commencement of FY06 comes to about $621 million or about Rs 38 billion in terms of decline in monetary assets since June 30, 2005.
In the FE market, the week, ended on 17th September, 2005, was characterised by tumbling of the rupee in terms of the US dollar following generally rising demand for the US currency in the inter-bank market, which pushed the rupee to its lowest since November 2004. On the opening day (12th September), the rupee did not move sharply versus the dollar in the inter-bank buying and selling at Rs 59.74 and Rs 59.75 respectively. By the close of the week, the rupee lost 11 paisa versus the dollar for buying and selling at Rs 59.85 and Rs 59.86, respectively with the difference between the open and inter-bank markets narrowing sharply. In the open market, the rupee moved both ways on 12th September amid tight supply of dollars maintaining its weekend level at Rs 60.05 for buying and Rs 60.10 for selling.
Amid modest gains in the intervening days, the rupee, somehow, managed to hold on to its level at Rs 60.05 and Rs 60.10 per dollar for buying and selling respectively on September 17, 2005. In the meanwhile, the local currency posted fresh gains of 30 paisa versus the Euro for buying and selling at Rs 73.30 and Rs 73.40 at the week-end on 17th after opening 30 paisa higher at Rs 73.60 for buying and 40 paisa higher at Rs 73.70 for selling on 12th September.
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