“The budget is alright, given the limited room for the government to manoeuvre and the constraints it had to deal with. If we don’t want to touch the ‘sacred cows’, sell the loss-making state-owned businesses (dragging down the government’s fragile fiscal house) or fix the power sector, then the (new) budget is fine,” observed Mian Mohammad Mansha, chairman of the Nishat Group, one of the country’
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 21 per cent for the next two months, according to a press release issued on Monday. The announcement came after a meeting of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). “The MPC assessed inflation is more likely to have peaked in May 2023. Weak domestic demand; ease in inflation expectations of consumers and bu
Pakistan paid for its first government-to-government import of Russian crude in Chinese currency, State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik said on Monday — a significant shift in its US dollar-dominated export payments policy. The first cargo of discounted Russian crude oil arranged under a new deal struck between Islamabad and Moscow arrived in Karachi on Sunday. It is currently being offloa
Country’s cars, jeeps, pick-ups and vans sales recovered by 19 per cent to 5,290 units month-on-month (MoM) in May while it plunged by 77pc year-on-year (YoY). During 11MFY23, sales stood at 120,158 units, down by 52pc YoY primarily attributable to the non-availability of CKDs, escalating car prices, expensive auto financing, and low purchasing power of consumers. According to Topline Securi
The State Bank is not considering restructuring bilateral debts, Governor Jameel Ahmed said at a briefing for analysts on Monday after announcement of the monetary policy. “In fact, the State Bank is not even aware about the restructuring of external debt. This means the government has not worked out such plan,” said Tahir Abbas, the head of research at Arif Habib Limited, after attending the m