Weekly Economic Roundup

February 13, 2022 (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 Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has introduced innovated Point of System (PoS) for monitoring sales made by tier-1 retailers across Pakistan. The POS verified Invoices shot Up three times as the Campaign on prize scheme picks up momentum.
• Workers’ remittances rose to $18 billion during the seven months of the ongoing fiscal year which was 9.1% higher than the same period last year.
• The sale of passenger cars witnessed a slash of 30.6% MoM during January 2022, clocking in at 16,985 units as opposed to 24,471 units sold in December 2021 on the back of a hike in prices due to an increase in taxes announced in the Mini Budget and higher raw material cost.
• The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on February 10, for the combined consumption group, witnessed a decrease of 0.08 percent as compared to the previous week.
• In order to ease exports to Afghanistan, the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has allowed export settlement of fourteen items in the Pakistani Rupee (PKR).
• The foreign exchange reserves held by the country increased by $1.63 billion or 7% WoW to stand at $23.72 billion during the week ended on February 4, 2022, compared to $22.08bn in the previous week, mainly due to $1bn received from International Monetary Fund (IMF) under Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program.
• The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on Thursday cleared the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) as a Modern Urban Railway project worth Rs273.07 billion while referring it to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for further consideration.
• The total deposits held by scheduled banks have shown a growth of 17% YoY to around Rs20 trillion in the first month of the calendar year i.e., January 2022, against Rs17.09tn in the same month of last year on account of strong overseas inflows.
• Sazgar Engineering Works Limited (SAZEW) sold 2,731 units of Auto Rickshaw during the month of January 2022, which was around 4.7 times YoY higher than the sales of 579 units made in the previous month.
• In line with market expectation, the local CRC manufacturers have increased the prices of CRC (1mm) and Galvanized Coils (1mm) by Rs3,000/ton, clocked in at Rs205,500 per ton and Rs212,850 per ton, respectively.
• Pakistan’s overall fiscal deficit in 1HFY22 stood at 2.1% of GDP (Rs1.37 trillion) against 2.5% of GDP (Rs1.137tr) in 1HFY21, showing a surge of Rs233 billion or 20% YoY.
• The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted an auction on Wednesday in which it sold Market Treasury Bills (MTBs) worth Rs592 billion, against its target of Rs500bn while it received bids worth Rs1.04 trillion. 
• Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc (MSCI) announced that Pakistan will become eligible for inclusion in the MSCI Frontier Markets 100 and the MSCI Frontier Markets 15% Country Capped Indexes as part of the May 2022 Semi-Annual Index Review (SAIR).
• The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Wednesday has deferred the Power Division’s two summaries on Settlement of Payables to government-owned power plants and reinstatement of a tax on dividend for investors/shareholders of IPPs.
• Consumers’ confidence in the country increased slightly by 0.7% during January 2022, indicating improving consumer sentiments, according to a survey report released by SBP.
• The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has imposed a monetary penalty of Rs57.834 million on five major banks on account of violation of regulatory instructions pertaining to general banking operations during the quarter ended Dec 31, 2021.
• Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday principally approved the formation of the Pakistan Cotton Authority to ensure the provision of quality seed, monitoring and enhancing the yield.
• Foreign exchange inflows through Roshan Digital Account (RDA) reached $3.38 billion in January 2022 since its launch in September 2020.

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