Pakistan on ThursÂday secured a lifeline of about $4 billion from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to sail through the immediate challenge of a sovereign default amid rapidly shrinking foreign exchange reserves, massive flood damages and an overall economic slowdown. Two separate official announcements said the UAE pledged to roll over $2bn debt payable over the next two months and top
Pakistan has secured over $3 billion in fresh funding from multilateral lenders on concessional terms and the inflows will start during the current fiscal year. The international lenders granted this significant loan at about 1pc interest rate with a repayment period of 40 years during the recent donor conference held in Geneva. Secretary Planning Zafar Ali Shah told journalists that the int
Just when the prices of wheat flour are soon going to ease, following a merciless upward trend witnessed over the past few months, another fundamental kitchen commodity started to become costlier for a people badly battered by the inflation. Prices of pulses are going up, thanks to the non-clearance of imported consignments at the port due to a delay in the approval of relevant documents by ban
Oil prices slipped in early trade on Friday but were on track for gains of more than six per cent for the week on solid signs of demand growth in top crude-oil importer China and expectations of less aggressive interest rate rises in the United States. Brent crude futures had fallen 33 cents, or 0.4pc, to $83.70 a barrel by 0322 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slipped
In the absence of any dollar inflows from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or friendly countries, foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) dropped to $4.34 billion, the lowest since February 2014. The SBP said on Thursday its reserves decreased by $1.23bn during the week ending on Jan 6 due to external debt repayments. The country has been facing a serious dollar sh