News

Fitch upgrades Pakistan to ‘CCC’ after IMF pact

Fitch Ratings on Monday upgraded Pakistan’s long-term foreign currency issuer default rating (IDR) to ‘CCC’ from ‘CCC-’ reflecting reduced external financing risks with improved external liquidity and funding conditions following recent staff-level agreement (SLA) with the IMF on a nine-month Stand-by Arrangement (SBA) in June. “We expect the SLA to be approved by the IMF board in July, catalys

PC gets go-ahead for Services Hotel, HBFC divestment

The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) on Monday allowed the Privatization Commission to proceed to complete privatisation of Services International Hotel and House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC). A meeting of the CCoP, chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, deferred a summary presented by the Privatisation Commission on the privatisation of PIA-owned Roosevelt Hotel in New York and

PM sees potential to increase food exports to Gulf states

Pakistan could attract an investment of $40 billion to $50bn in the years ahead and could grow its food exports to Gulf states within two years, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday. Addressing a seminar on agriculture and food security, he termed agriculture the backbone of the country, saying that farmers worked hard to provide food to millions of people. He said that the Green Pak

Govt asked to activate TCP for cotton buying

Perturbed over falling prices, growers have asked the government’s to activate Trading Corporation of Pakistan to start cotton buying at support price to save them from financial losses. The federal government in March promised growers an intervention of support price of Rs8,500 per maund of raw cotton (phutti) on the advice of the textile industry, which had been pinched last year by the poor

Remittances contract 14pc to little over $27bn in FY23

Pakistan lost over $4 billion in remittances sent by overseas Pakistan in FY23, much higher than the amount the PMLN-led coalition struggled to secure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the outgoing fiscal year. Data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday showed that the remittances month-on-month slightly increased by 4pc to $2.183bn in June while it witnessed a 22