News

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba-backed Daraz cuts workforce by 11pc

Alibaba Group subsidiary, Daraz Group, an e-commerce platform, is reducing its workforce by 11 per cent to prepare for the ‘current market reality’, the group’s CEO Bjarke Mikkelsen said in a letter to employees shared on the company website. Mikkelsen cited a difficult market environment, with a war in Europe, huge supply chain disruptions, soaring inflation, increasing taxes, and removal of e

Export of services grows in 1HFY23

The export of services grew nearly three per cent in the first half of the current fiscal year from a year ago mainly driven by information technology. The growth was achieved at a time when the exports of commodities continued to shrink for the past few months, according to the latest data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. In absolute terms, the value of export of services reac

Gwadar port dredging to cost five times more

The government has approved the maintenance dredging of a navigational channel of Gwadar Port with an escalated cost of Rs4.7 billion – a drastic increase from Rs1bn estimated in June 2022 – to avoid any mishap to cargo ships or imposition of penalties from Chinese port operators for business loss. The navigation channel of the port was last cleared in 2014-15 but had since developed sedimentat

Tetra milk, formula prices raised

Manufac­turers have increased the prices of various milk products including baby formula. The rate of one litre tetra milk pack has been raised to Rs250 effective Feb 20 from Rs230 while it was available at Rs220 in October 2022. A retailer said that the company raised Nido 1 plus 900-gram and 375- gram rates to Rs1,780 and Rs770 as compared to Rs1,360 and Rs640, while 800-gram and 375-gram

IMF ‘adjustments’ will not bring relief, warns HRW

As the International Monetary Fund and the government currently discussing a plan to rescue Pakistan’s economy, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has proposed that the Fund should work with Islamabad to strengthen social protection and mitigate harm to the most vulnerable by advancing economic rights. IMF should work with the government by broadening social protection systems and minimising reform measu