April 10, 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 weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the combined consumption group recorded a jump of 1.53% for the week ended on April 07, 2022, mainly due to an increase in the prices of essential food items.
• The government has disbursed an amount of Rs47,587.63 million for various power division schemes under Annual Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the year 2021-22 during the last three quarters.
• The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SBP at its emergency meeting today, has decided to raise the policy rate by 250 basis points to 12.25 percent. This increases forward-looking real interest rates (defined as the policy rate less expected inflation) to mildly positive territory.
• In line with the increase in policy rate announced in the MPC meeting today, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has the markup rate for financing under Export Finance Scheme (EFS), both Part I and Part II by 2.5%.
• The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country dropped by $1.07 billion or 5.8% WoW to stand at the lowest level of $17.47bn since June 26, 2020, during the week ended on April 01, 2022, compared to $18.55bn in the previous week.
• In the wake of surging import bill, raging dollar demand and depleting foreign exchange reserves, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has decided to impose a 100 percent cash margin on 177 imported products.
• Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. (LDC) signed a loan of up to $100 million with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support its operations in Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Viet Nam by financing coffee, cotton, and rice inventories for over 50,000 smallholder farmers across these countries.
• The government raised Rs679.89 billion through the auction of three, six, and 12-month T-bills while the target was Rs600bn.
• Cement despatches declined by 6.25 percent to 5.04 million tons against 5.37 million tons despatched during the same month of last fiscal year. 
• The exports of textile products in March 2022 have increased by 21% YoY to $1.65 billion as compared to $1.36bn in March 2021, as reported by All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA).
• The cumulative outflows from the National Savings Schemes (NSS) during the first eight months of the current fiscal year were recorded at Rs87.52 billion, mainly due to the restrictions imposed on financial institutions to invest in these schemes.
• After a strong economic rebound in fiscal year (FY) 2021, Pakistan’s economic growth is expected to moderate to 4% in FY2022 due to tighter fiscal and monetary policies before picking up again in FY2023, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report on Wednesday.
• The total debt of the central government surged to Rs42.76 trillion in February 2022, compared to Rs38.7tr in June, witnessing a surge of Rs4.1tr or 10.5% in 8MFY22.
• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deferred over $2 billion debt for Pakistan to help ease pressure on falling foreign reserves and domestic currency.
• The total sales of Oil and Marketing Companies (OMCs) witnessed an upsurge of 19% MoM and 23% YoY to clock in at 1.82 million tons during March 2022.
• Pakistan's merchandise trade deficit for the month of March 2022 clocked in at $3.44 billion compared to a deficit of $3.1bn in the previous month, depicting an increase of 11.6% MoM as imports jumped by 11.6% MoM.

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