With an almost 77 per cent jump in sugar prices in about four months, the maiden meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Caretaker Cabinet on Monday asked the Ministry of National Food Security to coordinate with relevant agencies and authorities “to check smuggling and hoarding of sugar”. The meeting of the ECC presided over by Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar was called
The increasing difference between the interbank and open market rates of the dollar has thrown up a challenge for the government as the Standby Arrangement (SBA) with the International Monetary Fund requires it to keep the differential down to 1.25 per cent. The differential has now soared to 5.6pc. A key condition of the $3bn SBA, signed last month, relates to the market-determined exchange
The inevitable has happened. On August 24, the Pakistani rupee fell below 300 to a US dollar in the interbank market. In less than two months of this fiscal year (between July 1 and August 24), the rupee has lost about five per cent value against the mighty greenback. The dollar has been on the rise since the lifting of import restrictions from the beginning of this fiscal year on July 1 at the
After a long break, Pakistan has relaunched a programme for oil and gas exploration, exploitation and development activities, onshore and offshore, aiming at recovering the untapped indigenous hydrocarbon resources. Petroleum, a vital economic sector, is heavily dependent on oil and gas imports to meet the ever-growing demand based on growth in population and increasing urbanisation, and the is
It’s extremely hard to scale a business by selling anything online in Pakistan, something that tech startups grapple with every single day. Even more so for digital products through mobile apps where, despite the hundreds of millions of smartphone users, the number of users for platforms is usually scant. But there are two categories that defy this trend. First, you have these financial apps th