Pakistan’s oil and eatables imports grew 9.06 per cent to $7.58 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year from $6.95bn a year ago, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Tuesday. In contrast, textile and clothing exports could only rise by 3.68pc year-on-year to $4.58bn due to slow demand and the high cost of local production because of expensive energy. The government ha
In a bid to stem the line losses and put an end to corruption in the power sector, the federal cabinet on Tuesday approved drastic measures, including installation of advanced metering infrastructure and low-cost solar energy projects, to overhaul the existing electricity generation and distribution system. A meeting of the cabinet, presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, also approved
The dollar has disappeared from the open market run by the exchange companies and there are reports that the US currency is trading at a much higher price in a parallel grey market. “This is true. The dollar is not available in the open market, but the grey market is offering it for as high as Rs232, making the legal currency business meaningless,” said Zafar Paracha, the secretary general of t
The Pakistani rupee continued to extend its losses on Wednesday, falling by Rs1.04 against the dollar during morning trade in the interbank market. The PKR was being traded at Rs220.75 per dollar around 11:13am, a depreciation of 0.47 per cent from yesterday’s close of Rs219.71, data shared by the Forexx Association of Pakistan showed. The dollar had managed to make a slight gain against the
Pakistan will ask international lenders for billions of dollars in loans after devastating floods exacerbated the country’s economic crisis, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. “We are not asking for any kind of measure [such as] a rescheduling or a moratorium,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the Financial Times. “We are asking for additional funds.” The country needs “huge sums o