What are the problems faced by the retail sector in Pakistan?
By Haseeb Ahmed Khawaja
Sales in the retail sector in Pakistan have nearly doubled in the last 10 years Source: Economist Intelligence Unit
However, despite the growth of the sector, several problems plague the value chain at present. Retailers, particularly those in general trade, face challenges of pricing, predictability and procurement. Wholesalers and distributors have a limited customer and product base. Manufacturers find the cost to serving individual retailers high and building supply chains difficult. These are the problems that Retailo aims to tackle by digitizing and supercharging the retail sector across the MENAP region. Read the full article to learn more their vision and value proposition.
KSE-100 continued its rise since recovering from lows of early May, up by over 1.5% since before Eid holidays. It is up over 35% since last year, as economic recovery looks set to return 3.94% GDP growth in FY21, amidst lower than expected COVID-19 cases. However, the PKR/USD exchange rate depreciated despite the dollar falling to its lowest level in 4 months. As US trade and account deficits weigh in, the dollar is expected to continue its slide, which should mean the PKR should appreciate. Since investors expect no action from the US Fed any time soon, bond yields remain low. This has allowed gold prices to recover as investors search for higher yielding assets amidst inflation concerns.
The annual change in Sensitive Price Index is up to 17.23% vs. 17.05% last week. The whole country experienced slightly higher inflation on an annual basis than last week. The lowest 20% of the population still faced inflation of almost 20%. Weekly inflation is up slightly due to increase in prices of a few food commodities. Increase in prices of Chicken (+12.74%) continued to be the single largest contributing factor toward high inflation. Sugar (+3.35%), Wheat (+3.01%) and Eggs (5.36%) prices continued to rise even after Ramadan. Even though Electricity charges fell by 3.24%, food inflation continued to hurt consumers across Pakistan. Drop in prices of Tomatoes (-17.96%) was also not enough to control inflation.
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