A record increase in returns on treasury bills and Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) has failed to attract a single dollar. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased the interest rate by 300 basis points to 20 per cent and the discount rate to 21pc on March 2 to counter high inflation. Before announcing the interest rate hike, the government had already increased the treasury bill returns to
The government should revise its tight gas policy to nudge energy companies towards exploring natural gas that’s obtained from reservoir rocks with low permeability using advanced technology. Addressing a seminar organised by CFA Society Pakistan on Tuesday, energy sector expert Muhammad Asim Subhani said each well that’s dug for tight gas must get a third-party certification in order to receiv
The outstanding auto financing continued to decline for the eighth consecutive month in February dipping almost 9 per cent to Rs326 billion from Rs357bn in the same month last year, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed on Tuesday. Samiullah Tariq, head of Research Pak Kuwait Investment Company, said car financing would remain depressed in coming months due to a massive rise
Pakistan has received $242 million from the United States to support flood relief, recovery efforts, disaster resilience and food security and the US-Pakistani diaspora contributed about $42m to the total. On Tuesday, US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome highlighted the valuable contributions of the diaspora and the private sector at a US Agency for International Development (USAID) conferenc
An emergent meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Tuesday approved a special grant of Rs27 billion (about $100 million) for payments to Kuwait Petroleum Corporation to avoid a formal default of the national fuel supplier — Pakistan State Oil (PSO). The meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar also sanctioned Rs2.9bn in additional supplementary grant a