The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Wednesday that its foreign exchange reserves rose to $14.51 billion by June 30. Last month, the central bank’s reserves increased by $167 million to $11.675bn during the week ending June 6, though it failed to reach its target of $14bn by the end of the 2024-25 fiscal year. A press release issued by the SBP today said its reserves rose by $5.12bn to r
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed the outgoing week on a bullish note, with the benchmark KSE-100 index surging 3.6 per cent week-on-week to settle at an all-time high of 124,379.06 points. The rally was driven by investor optimism following a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel, which eased geopolitical concerns and spurred aggressive pre-fiscal year-end buying. According to
Drawing comfort from the Iran-Israel ceasefire and adhering to the two-week schedule for the budget debate, the National Assembly last week passed a relatively improved version of the proposed federal budget for 2025-26. While its core remained largely unchanged, subtle in form and far from ideal, it was nonetheless a step forward. The Finance Bill, set to become law upon presidential assent, i
Pakistan’s large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector continued to face headwinds in first ten months of this fiscal year (July 2024–April 2025), contracting by 1.52 per cent year-on-year, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The decline reflects ongoing challenges in key industries such as food, chemicals, iron and steel. However, textile manufacturing — the largest component of L
India’s attempt to disrupt Pakistan’s external trade by banning ships carrying Pakistani goods from anchoring at its ports has failed to yield the desired impact, according to shipping industry representatives. On May 2, India imposed a ban on ships carrying goods originating from or destined for Pakistan, barring them from entering Indian ports or transiting through Indian territory. The move