July 03, 2022 (MLN): The economic roundup contains the recent economic developments and financial data releases over the course of the week to keep an eye on next week’s trend.

• Pakistan's yearly inflation rate (New Base 2015-16) in June 2022 rose to a 13-year high of 21.3% compared to 13.8% in May 2022 and 9.7% in June 2021.
• The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country increased by $1.98 billion or 13.97% WoW to stand at $16.2bn during the week ended on June 24, 2022, compared to $14.2bn in the previous week.
• Following the hike in petroleum product prices, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on Friday, increased Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) price by Rs1.66 per Kg for the month of July.
• Pakistan’s current account deficit (CAD) was recorded at $1.4 billion in May 2022, showing a jump of 2.3x when compared to a deficit of $618 million in April 2022, mainly due to a decline in remittances and exports on account of the Eid holidays.
• The Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) index was recorded at 93.57 in May 2022, showing a drop of 2.40% compared to 95.87 in April 2022.
• The country’s trade deficit in services deteriorated by 2.87x YoY to $380 million in May 2022 from $132mn in the same month of the previous year.
• ICT export remittances including telecommunication, computer and information services have dropped by 27% MoM to $183 million in May 2022, the lowest monthly number since February 2021.
• Pakistan received fresh external loans of $13.54 billion in 11 months of the ongoing fiscal i.e., July- May FY22 from multiple financing sources against the annual budget estimates of $14.09bn for the entire fiscal year FY22.
• Repatriation of profit and dividends by foreign investors increased by 7% YoY to $1.6 billion in 11MFY22 compared to the $1.50bn recorded in the same period of FY21, mainly due to healthy corporate profits earned by multinational companies.
• The government of Pakistan has finally received the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for combined 7th and 8th reviews.
• Pakistani startups have raised around $104 million in the second quarter of 2022, down by 41% QoQ from $177M due to a slowdown in VC funding amid global macro tailwinds and pullbacks across markets, especially in tech.
• The federal government on Thursday decided to increase the petrol prices by Rs14.85 to Rs248.74 per litre while imposing a Petroleum Levy (PL) of Rs10 per litre. This is the fourth consecutive hike in fuel prices since May 26.
• The government has released funds amounting to Rs1,949.72 million to execute seven ongoing and six new petroleum-related projects during the last fiscal year under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2021-22) against a total allocation of Rs3,249.54 million.
• The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has raised Rs1.74 trillion through the auction of three, six, and twelve-month T-bills against the target of Rs800bn and maturity of Rs791bn.
• The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) on Monday attained the target of issuing Rs. 1110 billion fresh bonds in the last months of current fiscal year 2021-22, from July 1, 2021 to June 25, 2022.
• Pakistan signed an agreement with France to get a suspension of loans worth $107 million under the G-20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) framework.

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