It’s extremely hard to scale a business by selling anything online in Pakistan, something that tech startups grapple with every single day. Even more so for digital products through mobile apps where, despite the hundreds of millions of smartphone users, the number of users for platforms is usually scant. But there are two categories that defy this trend. First, you have these financial apps th
The Senate Standing Committee on Power on Monday joined public criticism of the “unprecedented electric bills” and directed the Power Division to provide lists of electricity defaulters and outstanding dues to all the distribution companies (Discos). The meeting of the panel presided over by Senator Saifullah Abro discussed the unprecedented electric bills that have led to nationwide protests.
Thin demand for vehicles and soaring interest rates continued to cast gloom on the auto sector as the amount of outstanding auto loans shrank for the 13th consecutive month by Rs8.5 billion to Rs285.2 billion at the end of July from Rs293.7bn in June. According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data, the highest financing of Rs368bn stood at the end of June 2022 and since then it has been sli
With an almost 77 per cent jump in sugar prices in about four months, the maiden meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Caretaker Cabinet on Monday asked the Ministry of National Food Security to coordinate with relevant agencies and authorities “to check smuggling and hoarding of sugar”. The meeting of the ECC presided over by Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar was called
The increasing difference between the interbank and open market rates of the dollar has thrown up a challenge for the government as the Standby Arrangement (SBA) with the International Monetary Fund requires it to keep the differential down to 1.25 per cent. The differential has now soared to 5.6pc. A key condition of the $3bn SBA, signed last month, relates to the market-determined exchange