Weekly Economic Roundup

November 21, 2021 (MLN): The weekly economic roundup summarizes the country's key economic and financial data for the week from various sectors to keep an eye on next week's trends.

• The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in its meeting held on November 19, 2021, in Karachi, decided to raise the policy rate by 150 basis points (bps) to 8.75 percent.
• The weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the combined group increased by 1.07% WoW during the week ended Nov 18, 2021, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed.
• Pakistan’s current account deficit widened by 46.65% MoM to stand at $1.66 billion in October 2021 from $1.13bn in September 2021 on the back of a moderate decline in exports & remittances &some uptick in services imports.
• Pakistan’s trade deficit in services worsened by 39% YoY to $1.04bn during the 4M of the fiscal year 2022 from $750mn in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
• Overall production of petroleum commodities witnessed an increase of 4.75% during the first three months of the current financial year 2021-22 as compared to the corresponding period of the fiscal year 2020-21.
• The Large-Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) output increased by 1.19% for September 2021 compared to September 2020 while it dropped marginally by 0.72% when compared to August 2021.
• The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $23,550.6 million on November 12, 2021, down by $474.9mn WoW when compared to $24,025.5mn recorded on November 05, 2021.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Pakistan stood at $223 million during October ’21, down by 6% MoM against the net inflow of $236mn recorded in Oct’21.
• The country’s cotton production surged by a whopping 70% YoY to 6.852 million bales up to November 15, 2021, as opposed to 4.027m bales produced in the same period of last year, the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) said in its fortnightly report released on Thursday.
• Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $644.67 million during the first four months of the ongoing financial year (2021-22) compared to $557.96mn in the same period last year, showing a growth of 15.54%.
• Pakistan’s textile exports continued their record-breaking streak during Oct’21, depicting an upsurge of 24% YoY and 7.65% MoM. This takes the total textile exports during the first four-month of the current fiscal year i.e., July-October FY22 to $6.02bn, up by 26.55% YoY.
• Inward workers’ remittances continued their strong streak during October as inflows jumped by 10% year-on-year to $2.5 billion.

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