The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) foreign exchange reserves increased by $46 million during the week ended on Jan 31 after witnessing a decline in the two preceding weeks. This latest increase pushed the SBP forex holdings to $11.42 billion. The State Bank regularly buys dollars from the interbank market. However, the SBP did not mention the sources of the inflows that helped the reserves increa
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has emphasised that privatising state-owned enterprises (SOEs) was integral to the Uraan Pakistan economic reform and transformation initiative. Mr Shehbaz was chairing a review meeting on the task management system established for the privatisation process of SOEs and its monitoring, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday. He
Petroleum Minister Dr Musadik Malik on Thursday warned of ‘isolated bankruptcy’ in the petroleum sector unless a weighted average price of imported, piped and wellhead gas was introduced along with rationalised electricity rates to incentivise transition for transport, cooking and heating purposes. Testifying before the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Petroleum, Mr Malik also blamed t
Global credit rating agency Fitch on Friday acknowledged Pakistan’s progress when it came to making headway regarding economic stability. In a note, the agency said, “Pakistan has continued to make headway restoring economic stability and rebuilding external buffers.” Last year, the agency had upgraded Pakistan’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) to CCC+ from CCC on the
Exports have become uncompetitive after the government doubled gas prices for in-house power generation by factories, thus, the three-year goal of increasing exports to $60 billion may be missed, the Pakistan Business Council (PBC) told Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday. What a paradoxical situation it is as the miseries of industries are an achievement for the government that has met an