Weekly Economic Roundup

February 20, 2022 (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. 

• Amid soaring car prices and interest rates, automobile financing in Pakistan has dropped by 0.4% MoM to Rs352.2 billion in January 2022, after continuously increasing since July 2020.
• The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on February 17, for the combined consumption group, witnessed a slight increase of 0.22 percent as compared to the previous week.
• The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country dropped by $231 million or 0.96% WoW to stand at $23.49 billion during the week ended on February 11, 2022, compared to $23.72bn in the previous week.
• Pakistan’s foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped by 50% MoM to $110 million in January 2022.
• Pakistan’s Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) production grew by 16.7 percent during December 2021 compared to the previous month of November 2021.
• Pakistan’s cotton production surged by 32.4% to 7.43 million bales up to February 15, 2022, as opposed to 5.62 million bales produced in the same period of last year.
• Pakistan’s textile exports have touched a historic high of $11bn during 7MFY22, up by 25% YoY.
• The import bill of oil was recorded at $1.5 billion during January 2022, depicting an upsurge of 74.19% YoY but down by 15.96% MoM, touching a historic high of $11.96bn, up by 2x YoY during the July-Jan FY22 amid 74% YoY jump in Arab Light prices along with 25% YoY volumetric growth.
• With a view to further facilitate exporters and encourage timely inflow of export proceeds, the State Bank of Pakistan has enhanced the scope of Export Finance Scheme (EFS) – both conventional as well as Sharia-based.
• The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has raised Rs99.5 billion on Wednesday, against the target of Rs100 billion by selling fixed-rate Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs).
• The Federal Cabinet has approved the 3rd Textiles and Apparel Policy aiming to consolidate the growth already achieved in the textile sector.
• The government on Tuesday decided to increase the price of petroleum products by up to Rs12.03 per litre owing to the surge in international oil prices.
• Due to the revolutionary initiatives introduced by the central bank, the e-banking transactions were recorded at around $500 billion during the last fiscal year (2020-21).

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