July 17, 2022: 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.

• The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved $200 million in financing to support Pakistan in transforming the agricultural sector by adopting climate-smart technologies to improve water-use efficiency, build resilience to extreme weather events and increase the incomes of small farmers.
• Cement dispatches witnessed a marginal growth of 1% to 5.26mn tons in June 2022 compared to the same month last year, while it increased by 58.6% MoM from 3.3mn tons in May'22.
• The passenger car sales in the outgoing fiscal year 2022 clocked in at 234,180 units, recording robust growth of 55% compared to 151,182 units recorded in FY21, driven by an increase in purchasing power, launching of new models, non-availability of public transport, and increase in farmer income.
• The Weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the Combined Group witnessed a marginal increase of 0.01% during the week ended Jul 14, 2022 while the SPI jumped by 33.12% compared to the corresponding period from last year.
• The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country dropped by $132 million or 0.8% WoW to stand at $15.6bn during the week ended on July 7, 2022, compared to $15.74bn in the previous week.
• The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) raised Rs145 billion on Thursday, against the target of Rs150 billion by selling fixed-rate Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs).
• In the backdrop of a decline in oil prices in the international market, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday announced a reduction in petrol and diesel prices by Rs18.50 per litre and Rs40.54 per litre respectively.
• The total deposits held by scheduled banks have shown a growth of around 15% YoY to around Rs22.8 trillion in June 2022, against Rs19.79tr in the same month of last year on account of strong overseas inflows.
• Pakistan will receive $1.177 billion after the approval of IMF’s Executive Board, bringing total disbursements under the program to about $4.2 billion, said Nathan Porter, IMF Mission Chief on Wednesday.

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