Weekly Economic Roundup

June 19, 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.

• On Friday, the global financial watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)  announced an onsite visit to Pakistan to check the real implementation of laws/procedures before announcing its decision on whether Pakistan will be removed from the list.
• The Weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the Combined Group increased by 3.38% during the week ended Jun 16, 2022, while the SPI increased by 27.82% compared to the corresponding period from last year.
• The inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Pakistan in May 2022 stood at $141.2 million against the inflow of $170.6mn recorded in April 2022.
• After touching a record high-level last month, Pakistan’s textile exports witnessed a fall of 5.6% in the month of May 2022 to $1.64 billion, while sustaining above the $1.5bn levels since October’21.
• The import bill of oil was recorded at $2.65 billion in May 2022, 2.23x higher than May 2021, touching a historic high of $19.67bn, up by around 99% YoY during the July-May FY22 amid 65% YoY jump in Arab Light prices along with 31% YoY volumetric growth.
• Federal Minister for Water Resources Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah on Friday said the government had allocated Rs105 billion in the federal budget 2022-23 for the construction of dams, and the amount would be increased by Rs 25 billion if needed
• In a move to meet the gas requirement of the country, Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) has invited bids to import LNG from international suppliers to ship four cargoes next month. 
• On the upside, The Sindh government on Thursday rolled out a Rs356 million plan of planting 60k palm trees by setting up another 1,000-acre project in Thatta in a bid to enhance local production of edible oils.
• The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country dropped by $233.5 million or 1.53% WoW to stand at the lowest level of $14.94 billion since July 19, 2019, during the week ended on June 10, 2022, compared to $15.17bn in the previous week.
• Pakistan’s Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) production increased by 15.4% YoY during April 2022 when compared with April’21.
• The government raised Rs834 billion through the auction of three, six, and twelve-month T-bills against the target of Rs750bn and maturity of Rs725bn.
• The Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Tuesday formulated the “Anomaly Committee” to identify, and remove the technical and business anomalies in the Finance Bill 2022.
• The Sindh Cabinet has approved a Rs1.71 trillion tax-free budget for the next fiscal year 2022-23.
• Pakistan has won a terror-financing case filed against the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in New York’s federal court, sources in the Attorney General's Office confirmed on Tuesday.
• Additional measures will be needed to bring Pakistan's budget for FY2022-23 in line with the key objectives of its International Monetary Fund program, the lender's resident representative in Islamabad said on Monday.
• The passenger car sales in May 2022 were recorded at 19,395, showing a nominal increase of 4.13% MoM against 18,626 units sold in April 2022 as sales are reverting back to their normalized level.
• National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Monday approved Rs3.99 per unit positive fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for April for XWAPDA power distribution companies.

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