FINANCE Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has once again contended that ‘Pakistan is heading in the right direction’, conceding the urgency of securing external financing for the approval of its $7bn bailout package by the IMF executive board. His recorded address was broadcast amid further delays in the approval of the facility by the board, at least until the middle of this month, because of the co
A STRING of data releases in the previous week might suggest that the country has turned the corner. This is partially true. But it’s the other part, not covered by these data releases, where the problems really reside. Consider three separate data and information points. The latest inflation reading shows its growth rate has dropped to single digits finally. The trade deficit declined on both
The government has decided in principle to create a blended gas pricing mechanism by abolishing the ring-fenced Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pricing and merging it with wellhead and pipeline quality natural gases to scale down power rates and provide a level playing field to all consumer categories. This was stated by Minister for Petroleum Dr Musadik Malik while talking to journalists. He said
Without changing the cut-off yields on treasury bills (T-bills), the government raised Rs835 billion, exceeding the auction target, on Wednesday. Financial market experts said the auction result was up to expectations since the market has already incorporated the expected cut in the interest rate. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is scheduled to announce a monetary policy for the next two mo
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned that the share of labour income, which represents the proportion of total income earned by workers in an economy, has experienced a decline over the past two decades by 1.6 percentage points. New estimates indicate that the labour income share continued to decrease since 2019, declining to 52.3pc in 2022 and remaining at that level in 2023