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
The federal development spending fell drastically by 43.68 per cent to Rs151.42 billion in the first half year (July-December) of the current fiscal year from Rs268.87bn over the corresponding period last year to create a space for unbridled current expenditures. In absolute terms, the expenditures so far account for 20.82pc of the total revised allocation of Rs727bn, drastically short of the d
In a bid to avert any shortage of ghee/cooking oil in Ramazan, the Ministry of Industries (MoI) and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday agreed to remove bottlenecks for speedy clearance of 385,000 tonnes of palm oil stuck at customs bonded warehouses due to non-retiring of documents. Edible oil industry sources claimed that an understanding has been reached between the SBP and MoI during