The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased by $112 million to $9.403 billion during the week ending on August 23, reported the central bank on Thursday without disclosing the source of this inflow. In a recent interview, SBP Governor Ahmed Jameel said the government had approached Middle Eastern banks to borrow $4bn. Media reports indicate that the governme
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Thursday reaffirmed that the government was keen on introducing policy measures that would streamline investment processes and provide incentives to foreign investors. Chairing a meeting with representatives from Pak-Brunei Investment Company Ltd (PBICL) and Saudi-Pak Industrial and Agricultural Investment Company (SPI&AIC) to evaluate the progress, challe
Traders from Karachi have opposed the Rs3.09 per unit additional fuel cost adjustment (FCA) demanded by K-Electric, saying it would put them at a competitive disadvantage compared to the rest of the country. The traders pleaded this on Thursday during National Electric Power Regulatory Authority’s (Nepra) public hearing on KE’s request for permission to extract Rs6.2bn from its consumers for
The first month of the new fiscal year saw a surge of 68.72 per cent in the country’s trade deficit with nine neighbouring countries, taking it to $1.041 billion from $0.617bn over the last year. Experts attributed the jump mainly to an increase in imports from China and India. Since the rise in deficit remains unchanged from the previous fiscal year, it may cause big problems for policymake
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Thursday approved exemptions from procurement rules for the execution of a framework agreement with China for the realignment of the $2billion Karakoram Highway (KKH) and the Chakdara-Timergara Highway with South Korea, due to their tied credit. The committee, however, decided to bar foreign-funded projects that lack self-sufficient re