Provincial governments and PASSCO are having 2.635 million higher wheat stocks as on March 17, 2015 as compared to the same period of corresponding year, it was learnt. Sources said that wheat stock position conveyed to them by Finance Ministry was reported to a meeting of the Federal Cabinet's Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
The meeting was informed that total stock position of wheat was 2.096m tons by March 17, 2014, but it increased to 4.731m tons in the same period of current fiscal year. Finance Ministry told the ECC that the reported wheat stock is sufficient for daily releases to mills by provincial food departments and PASSCO. Wheat stock held by Punjab government is 2.45m tons in the current fiscal year against 0.178 million tons for the same period of corresponding year and wheat stock held by Sindh government is 0.782m tons in the current fiscal year against 0.087m tons of the last fiscal year. Wheat stock held by PASSCO was reported at 1.214m tons against 1.044m tons of the last year.
The total reported stock of sugar in the country as on March 16, 2015 stood at 3.41m tons. The ECC was informed during a briefing held to review key economic indicators that a regional comparison suggested that Pakistan's year-on-year inflation rate (CPI) registered at 2.5 per cent in March 2015, while in India it was 5.2pc (March 2015), followed by Bangladesh (6.3pc, March 2015) and Sri Lanka (0.1pc) March 2015.
The ECC was also told that production of the Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) sector stood at 2.0pc in July-February, 2014-15 as compared to 5.5pc in the same period last year. The items which registered increase in production are automobiles, iron and steel products, electronics, chemicals, textile, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, coke & petroleum products, leather products and non-metallic mineral products, while the items which declined include wood products, food beverages & tobacco, rubber products, paper & board and engineering products. Export growth has decreased by 3.3pc while imports decreased by 1.2pc and thus trade deficit on year-on-year basis stood at US $12.8 billion during the July-March, 2014-15 as compared to $12.6bn in the corresponding period of last year.
Workers' remittances received in July-March 2014-15 stood at $13,327m as against $11,586m in 2013-14, indicating an increase of 15.0pc. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, the US and the UK are the largest sources of worker's remittances. Gross foreign exchange reserves stood at $17.575bn as on April 28, 2Q15 with SBP (US $12.459bn) and scheduled banks (US $5.116bn). During (July-March) 2014-1 5, FBR tax collection stood at Rs 1,775bn as compared to Rs 1,575bn in the same period last year. Net inflow of foreign investment during July-March (2014-1 5) stood at $1,765m.