China’s central bank said on Wednesday it had added 32 tonnes of gold worth around $1.8 billion to its reserves, the first time it has disclosed an increase since September 2019. The additions bring China’s reported holdings at the end of November to 1,980 tonnes, worth around $112bn. China has the world’s sixth-largest official national gold reserves after countries including Russia, German
The government has been borrowing extensively from the banking system to bridge the widening fiscal gap. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data showed that the federal government borrowed Rs1,213 billion from the banks during the first five months of FY23 against the net debt retirement of Rs38.7bn during July-Nov FY22. The key issue in the talks with IMF is the widening of the fiscal gap as
Business confidence has nosedived in the last six months across different sectors of the economy, according to the Business Confidence Index (BCI) Survey (Wave-22) released by the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI). Conducted across the country in September-October, the survey said the overall Business Confidence Score (BCS) dropped to negative four per cent, down 21 pe
Amid reports that foreign banks, including those from China, may find it difficult to operate in Pakistan after the financial system becomes fully compliant with Sharia, the central bank has conceded challenges related to public debt, foreign banks, external debt commitments and monetary policy that would need to be addressed by a steering committee of all stakeholders under a five-year transforma
Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange began the week in the red as uncertainty looms on the outlook for the country’s foreign exchange reserves with no clarity on when the pending ninth review of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will conclude. Pakistan’s forex reserves stood at a historic low of $7.5 billion for the week ending on November 25 — barely enough to cover a month’s imports.