The power sector default now stands at Rs2.5 trillion in addition to Rs2.6tr of circular debt despite over Rs3.4tr of subsidies paid since 2007 and total power sector losses of Rs5.7tr, a direct outcome of bad policies pursued by successive governments on the advice of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and USAID. The poor governance structure controlled by the federal bureaucracy without t
The State Bank of Pakistan has eased imports of several essential items required as raw material and some basic needs of the exporters. A circular issued by the SBP on Tuesday stated that the central bank had decided to withdraw its instructions with effect from Jan 2, 2023, paving the way for acceptance of requests for import transactions already submitted to the SBP. Earlier, under circula
The import of gas from Russia is still a distant dream for Pakistan despite the two countries’ willingness to play ball. Analysts say the renewed discussion around gas imports from Russia won’t amount to much — at least in the short term — for two reasons. One, lack of infrastructure to handle gas imports; and two, inadequate capacity in the existing pipeline system to transport gas from one po
Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday on hopes of a recovery in fuel demand as China continues to ease its Covid-19 restrictions, though gains were capped by recession concerns and restarts at some United States energy plants shut by winter storms. Brent futures for February delivery rose nine cents, or 0.1 per cent, to $84.42 a barrel, by 0406 GMT. US crude advanced 10 cents, or 0.1pc, to $79.6
Gold outperformed all major investment avenues by a significant margin in 2022, a research note issued by Topline Securities showed on Tuesday. It was followed by one-year (dollar-based) Naya Pakistan Certificates and the US currency as the best-performing assets in the outgoing year. These three asset classes provided returns that were higher than the estimated average inflation of around