Oil prices were mixed on Tuesday after China posted its weakest economic growth in nearly half a century, while its late-2022 U-turn in Covid policy still supported hopes of recovery in the country’s fuel demand this year. Brent crude futures had risen 16 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $84.62 by 0414 GMT, recouping some of the 1pc loss of the previous session. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) cr
Trading on the stock exchange commenced on a positive note in the outgoing week as investors celebrated the reported progress towards the resolution of the circular debt, said Arif Habib Ltd. The benchmark index of the stock market remained in then green zone subsequently as Pakistan secured more than $10 billion in pledges from international financial institutions. The United Arab Emirates als
Pakistan remained in the grip of the foreign exchange crisis in 2022. Now, at the beginning of 2023, the situation has deepened further. On January 6, forex reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) plunged to $4.343 billion, enough to cover just three weeks of imports, after the country repaid $1bn commercial loans of two UAE-based banks. Despite such a massive decline in the forex res
In a book I put together two decades ago, the late Meekal Ahmed, one of Pakistan’s most distinguished economists, contributed a chapter titled ‘An economic crisis state’. He had this to say then: “Economic management in Pakistan has steadily deteriorated to the point where the economy has lurched from one financial crisis to the next. At the heart of the problem has been poor management of public
PAKISTAN owes the world about $100 billion and has to repay $21bn to foreign lenders during the current fiscal year. And during the next three years, it will have to return similar or larger amounts each year totalling about $70bn. So what happens four years from now? Will we have repaid about $90bn to our creditors and owe only $10bn? Unfortunately, no. We have no resources to repay our lender