Weekly Economic Roundup

December 5, 2021 (MLN): The latest weekly roundup covers the latest economic and financial data releases over the past week to keep an eye on next week's trends. 

• Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar said the government is expecting the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by FY22 due to prudent policies.
• Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin confirmed that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has received a $3 billion Saudi deposit.
• Following a flurry of changes in the money market earlier this week, the six-month Karachi Interbank Offer Rate (Kibor) closed to a two-year high at 11.5% on Friday.
• The weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the combined group witnessed a drop for the second consecutive week as it recorded a decrease of 0.48% WoW during the week ended December 02, 2021, with vegetable and LPG prices showing signs of decline.
• Foreign exchange reserves held by the country declined by 1.21% or $275 million to stand at $22.50 billion during the week ended on November 26, 2021.
• Pakistan's merchandise trade deficit has ballooned by 2.33x YoY during November 2021, standing at $4.963 billion on the back of higher imports growth than exports.
• Pakistan’s cotton production soared by 54% YoY to 7.168 million bales up to December 01, 2021, as opposed to 4.648m bales produced in the same period of last year.
• CPI general inflation increased by 11.53%YoY in November taking the 5MFY22 average to 9.32%YoY on the back of a surprise increase in food, housing, water, electricity, gas and fuel prices.
• The government has so far released funds amounting to Rs4.13 billion during the current fiscal year to execute Information Technology and Telecommunication projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2021-22).
• The government is planning to increase e-commerce trade volume up to $9 billion in the next two years by June 2023, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on E-Commerce, Senator Aon Abbas Buppi said.
• Yields on three-month treasury bills (T-Bills) in an auction held on Wednesday jumped by 228 basis points as the government only accepted bids worth Rs504.3 billion in all three tenors against a target of Rs750bn.
• The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet on Wednesday has approved a proposal tabled by the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) to raise profit margins of dealers on petrol by Rs0.99 per litre to Rs 4.90.
• Pakistan’s exports during November 2021 jumped by 33% YoY to a historic monthly high of $2.903 billion as compared to $2.174bn during the corresponding period last year.
• The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on Tuesday cut the prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) by 14.31 per Kg for the month of December.
• The government has decided to keep the petroleum prices unchanged for the next fortnight till December 15, a notification issued by the Finance Division on Tuesday showed.
• The government is all set to invest Rs111 billion in different power transmission projects during the next three years.

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