Weekly Economic Roundup

July 31, 2022 (MLN): The financial highlights of the country are brought to light with the economic and financial data releases over the course of the week.

• The Weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the Combined Group increased by 3.68% during the week ended Jul 28, 2022 while the SPI increased by 37.51% compared to the corresponding period from last year.
• The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country dropped by $827 million or 5.4% WoW to stand at $14.4 billion during the week ended on July 22, 2022, compared to $15.24bn in the previous week.
• Pakistan’s current account deficit (CAD) was recorded at $17.4 billion in FY22, up by a whopping 6.2x YoY when compared to a deficit of $2.8bn in FY21, mainly on the back of higher import bill and muted growth in workers’ remittances.
• Pakistan’s trade deficit in services widened by 2.5x YoY to $727 million in June 2022 compared to the deficit of $293mn recorded in June 2021.
• The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has raised Rs1 trillion through the auction of three, six, and twelve-month T-bills against the target of Rs650 billion while the cut-off yields witnessed no change.
• The country’s overall nutrients offtake increased by 17.3% to 483,000 tonnes during June 2022 compared to the same month last year.
• Cement despatches declined massively by 54% YoY and 66% MoM to 1.79mn tons in July 2022.
• Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) to Negative from Stable while affirming its Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'B-'.

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