Point-of-sale (POS) transactions routed through main digital payment systems fell by around 50 per cent the day after former prime minister Imran Khan’s arrest ignited countrywide protests and prompted authorities to shut down mobile internet services, data showed on Thursday. The reason for the slump was primarily the mobile broadband suspension, in addition to lower footfall at the limited nu
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday announced that the federal budget for fiscal 2024 would be presented on June 9 and insisted that Pakistan would not default on any foreign liability, with or without an IMF programme. Speaking to journalists after a seminar organised by the National Security Division, the minister said there should be no concern over the repayment of $3.7 billion foreign
THE government has told the International Monetary Fund (IMF) it would not implement a fuel subsidy programme as the two sides negotiate a long-delayed $1.1 billion bailout for the country, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. The IMF has also said that it would “continue engagement with the government on the loan despite the ramp-up in political tensions”. The remarks came after the arrest of
The stock market extended its losses on Wednesday after the benchmark of representative shares opened on the lower side. Arif Habib Ltd said stock prices dropped mainly because of the country’s political and economic instability. Investor activity declined significantly, with third-tier companies leading the volume board, it added. Topline Securities noted that the arrest of opposition leade
ACCORDING to the Economic Affairs Division (EAD), as of June 30, 2022, the total external public debt of Pakistan stood at $88.8 billion. Out of this, the debt owed to multilateral financial institutions (MFIs) and the IMF was $42.1bn, which came to 48 per cent of Pakistan’s external public debt. In comparison, expatriate Pakistanis send home remittances of around $31bn annually. The official q