As the rupee continues to weaken faster than market expectations, doubts and fears are mounting over the country’s economic health, particularly its ability to pay the import bill for essential items in the coming weeks. The exchange rate has been primarily hit hard by a steep decline in the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves, which have shrunk to a near nine-year low of $4.34 billion.
Stock trading started on Monday with investors exhibiting negative sentiments for shares from a wide range of sectors. Arif Habib Ltd said share prices dropped and stayed in the red territory throughout the trading session owing to the prevailing political uproar. One of the four provincial assemblies stands dissolved while another provincial legislature is likely to be dissolved soon as part o
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
While seeking the government’s help in opening letters of credit (LCs) amid fear of industry closure, the manufacturers have pushed up the price of steel bars to an all-time high of Rs243,500 per tonne citing a continuous increase in raw material prices, supply chain disruptions and soaring production cost. In another development, the rate of galvanised sheet or cold rolled sheet used in making
Pakistan remains a lower-middle income country and will continue to be vulnerable to fluctuating energy prices, warns a UN report released on Monday. The report also places India and Bangladesh among lower-middle-income countries despite their economic gains and urges the entire South Asian region to reduce its energy consumption. Nepal is also placed in the same category, although Afghanistan