Data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Monday showed that the consumer price index (CPI) for March was up 20.7 per cent from the same month last year, the lowest reading in nearly two years and below the finance ministry’s projections for the month. Compared with the previous month, inflation for March registered a 1.7pc rise. The economy has been beset by inflation above 20pc
As development spending continued to falter in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, successive governments kept doling out funds for the discretionary schemes of parliamentarians, according to official data. In the past eight months, parliamentarians consumed Rs38 billion out of the allocated Rs90bn in the budget for their schemes, as per the latest data on development expenditure
Expressing a need to restore confidence in the official functionaries, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has asked the government to speed up taxation reforms and privatise loss-making state-owned enterprises, especially in the energy sector. Addressing a news conference on Monday after meeting with Commerce Minister Jam Kamal, FPCCI President Atif Ikram Sheik
Amid rising smuggling of Iranian oil products and claims of eroding market share of oil marketing companies (OMCs), local oil sales rose four per cent year on year in March and 3pc month-on-month to settle at 1.15 million tonnes. However, oil sales during 9MFY24 fell by 11pc to 11.34m tonnes from 12.80m tonnes in the same period last fiscal year, according to Arif Habib Ltd (AHL) data. Both
Japanese companies operating in Pakistan are least interested in further investment to expand their businesses, while the country ranked lowest in the region. “Unstable security, high inflation and an unstable exchange rate are major business concerns for Japanese companies operating in Pakistan,” said an official Japanese government survey on Monday. The Japan External Trade Organisation (J