Annual flows in National Savings Schemes turn negative first time in 16 years

National Savings Schemes have seen a visible decline in the investments as the trend to withdraw from the schemes overshadowed the new investments, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The annual flows in the National Savings Schemes turned negative first time after 16 years as Rs100billion has been withdrawn from these schemes.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan, Rs100.55 billion have been withdrawn from the National Savings Schemes during the current fiscal year.

The main reason for this decline in investment is due to the closure of prize bonds of different denominations by the government to meet the FATF demands.

According to details, the investors have cashed prize bonds worth Rs76billion in the last 10 months. The investors also withdrew Rs8.80billion from Defence Savings Certificates and Rs35.27billion from other savings schemes during this period.

Whereas, only Rs20billion have been deposited in the regular Income Scheme.

Last year too, the almost doubled amount of investment had been withdrawn through prize bond encashment. However, due to an increase in the investment in other savings schemes, the National Savings Schemes volume had reached almost Rs371billion.

It was in 2005 when the National Savings Schemes had seen a negative flow of Rs50billion in National Savings Schemes.