With the finance minister taking a back seat in recent days, it does not exactly inspire confidence that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif himself has had to step forward and extend assurances to the IMF regarding Pakistan’s intent with regard to resuming the Extended Fund Facility. It is unclear whether Islamabad has finally realised the gravity of the crisis it is in, which is only going to get e
In the middle of a serious dollar shortage that’s forcing the government to withhold import payments for even food and industrial raw material, one startup is rolling out a US trading and investing product for Pakistani investors. Elphinstone Pakistan wants Pakistanis to remit dollars for investments in American stocks and treasury bills, even though the government is trying to minimise dollar
Higher import and transportation costs, crop availability, the demand and supply gap, hoarding, exchange rate issues, etc have led to massive price disparities in prices of essential food items in various cities of the country. According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the rate of 20kg flour bag in Karachi has reached a record Rs2,800-3,000 as compared to Rs1,295 in
As Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen to an alarming level — not even sufficient enough to cover three weeks’ worth of imports — the financial sector has asked Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to stop ‘managing’ the rupee-dollar parity, which is one of the key conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for resuming stalled talks for the release of a $1.12 billion tranche. P
A delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will meet Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on the sidelines of the upcoming Geneva conference to “discuss outstanding issues”, the lender’s spokesperson said on Sunday. The International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan will be held in Geneva on January 9 (Monday). The event will be co-hosted by the Government of Pakistan and the United Na