Confirming what has been known as an open secret for months now, the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (Ecap) on Monday said that the country has been facing the large-scale outflow of US dollars to Afghanistan ever since the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul last year. Addressing a presser, Ecap Chairman Malik Bostan noted that this situation had eroded Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves.
Oil prices rose to three-week highs on Tuesday as China’s latest easing of Covid-19 restrictions raised fuel demand hopes and concerns that winter storms across the United States are affecting energy production continued to buoy prices. Brent crude was up 88 cents, or 1.1 per cent, at $84.80 a barrel by 0253 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $80.44 a barrel, up 88 cents, or 1.1
The government on Monday decided to use all the administrative and legal resources to recover Rs447 billion Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) from commercial and industrial entities which had blocked due payments through high courts despite standing orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan for recoveries. The decision was taken at a GIDC meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq D
Pakistan will head into 2023 with an incredibly gloomy economic outlook and troubles lurking around every corner. In the outgoing year, the people came around to an unprecedented price growth amid the country’s consistently deteriorating balance of payments crisis exacerbated by devastating summer floods and ongoing political uncertainty. Next year we could see inflation entrenched further a
WITH the country’s foreign exchange reserves depleting to dangerous levels, all eyes are on the government to see how its negotiations with the IMF pan out. Friday’s pages carried a concerning report on the State Bank’s forex holdings, which stood at just $6.1bn after the week that ended Dec 16. The central bank cited continuing repayments of external debt as the reason behind the sustained dec