News

Development spending falls 45pc in July-October

Amid rising interest payments and disruptions caused by super floods, Pakistan’s development expenditure has contracted almost 45 per cent to less than Rs99 billion in the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal year as the government’s overall expenditures increase. According to data released by the Ministry of Planning and Development, total expenditure in the first four months

Auto market’s fortunes turn as ‘own money’ vanishes on falling demand

Struggling to offload cars, Chinese and Korean firms offer attractive packages, discounts • No change for Toyota, Honda and Suzuki; Audi prices fall on expiry of SRO KARACHI: Increase in interest rates, curbs on auto financing and the prevailing political and economic uncertainty have proven to be more turbulent for Korean and Chinese auto assemblers than their Japanese counterparts and are of

Ex-SBP chief argues against ‘piecemeal’ debt restructuring

Former central bank governor Syed Salim Raza has said Pakistan should avoid going for a “piecemeal restructuring” of its dollar-denominated debt. Speaking at a recent seminar on national economic challenges, the former chief of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said that asking one of the many creditors to restructure the debt was “unfair” and tantamount to subsidising the other creditors. “I

Dar’s directive for reviving Reko Diq before Dec 15

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday directed all relevant departments for early completion of the remaining steps to ensure the revival of the multi-billion-dollar Reko Diq project before the Dec 15 deadline. The apex committee on the Reko Diq project chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar reviewed the progress on the implementation of agreed steps so far for the completion of the Reko Diq ar

SBP rebuts reports it withheld payments to Google

Confusion continued to prevail over the central bank’s alleged decision to withhold certain payments to foreign service providers and thus put the citizens at risk of losing access to certain paid apps and services come next month. While the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has dismissed as “baseless and misleading” reports that it had withheld payments to Google, the telecom industry and other sta