The overall business confidence in Pakistan fell to minus four per cent, according to a survey of the Overseas Investors Chambers of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) conducted during September-October 2022. The business confidence score was low — 17pc — in the previous survey of March-April as well, but it was still positive. The OICCI says the decline in business confidence is not surprising “con
After the Supreme Court endorsed a settlement deal worth over $6.5 billion last week, the government on Sunday approved a payment of more than $900 million to the Chilean firm Antofagasta over six years to exit the Reko Diq project. The committee also green-lighted about $1.91bn shareholder financing by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to take the gold and copper mining project forward. The de
Stock prices plummeted on Thursday after bouncing within a small range on the back of a deteriorating macroeconomic situation. Analyst Ahsan Mehanti said the shares market came under pressure as investors reacted to a report by international investment bank JPMorgan, which projected the central bank raising the policy rate by 400 basis points to 20 per cent by the end of 2022-23 amid high infla
The Biden administration has added 24 companies and other entities to an export control list for supporting Russia’s military or defense industrial base, Pakistan’s nuclear activities or for supplying an Iranian electronics company. The entities, based in Latvia, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore and Switzerland, were added over US national security and foreign policy concerns, the Commerce Departmen
Despite the import of urea, farmers complain that market costs for compost have climbed significantly. Amanullah Chattha, vice-president of Kissan Board Pakistan, said in a statement here on Thursday that although the government imported 33,000 tonnes of fertiliser from abroad, urea compost is sold for Rs3,000 per bag in the local market. He said that the first irrigation of the wheat harvest i