There is a popular belief that inflation rises during Ramazan, with authorities solely fixated on stocking up and artificial price hikes. Prices tend to escalate during Ramazan, with a general surge of 31.5 per cent in recent months, and several food items experiencing up to a 60pc increase in prices from their pre-Ramazan levels. While stocking up may be a contributing factor towards higher pr
The 2023 spring meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) begin in the US capital on Monday to consider “uncertainties and risks weighing heavily” on the global economy. The April 10-16 meetings at the IMF and World Bank headquarters will also focus on the effects of climate change, which is threatening lives and livelihoods around the world. The meetings bri
The government plans to embark on a 10-year transition strategy to shift from gas to electricity in commercial, industrial and residential sectors, and push energy-efficient buildings under a Rs45 billion energy efficiency and conservation project, which envisages energy savings of over Rs500bn a year. The project was formally cleared by the Central Development Working Party a few days ago for
Share prices hovered on the higher side on Wednesday following the less-than-expected hike of 100 basis points in the key interest rate that the Monetary Policy Committee announced a day earlier. Arif Habib Ltd said the interest rate increase of one percentage point surprised investors and boosted their confidence. The bourse continued to trade positively throughout the trading session, even th
The World Bank on Tuesday projected about four million people falling below the lower middle-income poverty line amid economic growth plummeting to just 0.4 per cent against a budgeted target of 5pc. Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has forecast Pakistan’s economic growth plunging to 0.6pc from 6pc last year owing to the prevailing political crisis, flood-oriented economic losses, fo