As the government finally makes up its mind to come up with a mini-budget and address other concerns of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that are set to further stoke up inflation, the unfolding political uncertainties continue to pose challenges in materialising their reasonable outcomes towards macroeconomic recovery path. Based on the prevailing and anticipated events in the run-up to
The Shehbaz Sharif-led coalition seems to have learnt it the hard way. His government is reported to have finally requested the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to send over its mission to Islamabad — preferably by the end of this week — for discussions around all the ‘thorny’ issues that have held back progress on its ninth programme review for almost four months, delaying disbursement of the ne
KARACHI: For Pakistanis, there are many faults in our banks — unnecessary documentation for basic procedures like account opening, inordinate disruptions in digital services, arcane regimes to stifle business growth and lack of appetite to facilitate users, to name but a few. Apparently, there is an addition to the list: exorbitant exchange rates on foreign transactions. And as happens in ti
Bulls made a comeback to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday after three gloomy sessions. Arif Habib Ltd said the benchmark of 100 representative shares stayed at a higher level as investors chose to cherry-pick stocks at appealing rates. It added that investors’ participation grew dramatically after the State Bank of Pakistan governor issued a “much-needed” clarification on the issue
The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) has rolled over a $2 billion deposit with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) that was payable over the next two months, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed on Wednesday. In a late-night tweet, he stated, “Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) has rolled over their deposit of $2 billion with State Bank of Pakistan, as discussed by [PM Shehbaz Sharif] with