News

IMF team due in November for next review

The Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday that it would send a team to Pakistan early next month to start the process for the next review of their current programme. At a media briefing, journalists asked IMF’s Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Jihad Azour if the Fund would reschedule Pakistan’s debt and provide financial relief to the country to help it deal with the c

Pakistan is a difficult market to operate in, says Daraz CEO

Does the founder and group CEO of Daraz, largest player in Pakistan’s ecommerce market of $1.5 billion, think the country is a difficult market to operate in? “Absolutely. I’d say so,” said Bjarke Mikkelsen, who heads the Alibaba-owned ecommerce platform operating in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. In an interview with Dawn during his one-day visit for the inauguration of the coun

Rabi wheat target fixed at 28.4m tonnes

The high-powered Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) met on Thursday to set production targets for Rabi crops for the 2022-23 season and fixed a wheat production target at 28.4 million tonnes, to be grown on an area of 9.3m hectares. The wheat production target for Punjab has been fixed at 21m tonnes, while Sindh’s target has been fixed at 4m tonnes. The target for Sindh has been set in anti

SBP reserves hit three-year low of $7.59bn

The central bank’s foreign exchange reserves dropped $303 million to a three-year low of $7.597 billion in the week ending Oct 7, it said on Thursday, while the rupee also edged lower for a second day. The reserves fell due to external debt repayments, including repayments of a commercial loan and interest payments and Eurobonds, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said. Reserved held by commer

Stocks rise on monetary policy

The Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday witnessed the revival of investor interest on optimism that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would maintain status quo in its monetary policy announcement. The market kicked off trading on a positive note and soon the benchmark KSE100 index touched intra-day high of 42,441.29 points. Investor optimism was also fuelled by a statement from Finance Minister Is