After being unsatisfied with Stefan Dercon's strategy, Pakistan has finalised a new five-year economic plan to increase the economy's size to $1 trillion. However, some critical goals cannot be achieved until the newly erected social media firewall is dismantled. The plan also aims to increase the low literacy rate to 70% and reduce poverty incidence by 13% over the next five years. The documen
THE state may have succeeded in pushing the protesters back from the streets of the capital on Tuesday night, but consider what it took to make that happen. Even before the crowds had departed, the scale of the lockdown in Punjab was perhaps unprecedented, even compared to the pandemic. Speak with industry owners across the province and listen to the stories of shipments stuck — whether of raw
The State Bank has removed the Minimum Deposit Rate (MDR) requirement for all conventional banks on deposits from financial institutions, public sector enterprises and public limited companies. The State Bank issued two circulars on Tuesday for conventional banks and Islamic banking institutions (IBIs). The circulars carried several instructions specific to the IBIs. The MDR is a regulatory
Amid a record stock market rally, receding food inflation, low current account deficit and improving foreign investment, trade and industry leaders have expressed concerns that the rising political uncertainty, deteriorating security situation and high cost of doing business are forcing local industrialists to switch over their businesses to foreign countries. They urged the government and the
The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reserves rose further by $131 million to $11.418 billion during the week ended on Nov 22, announced the central bank on Thursday. With the beginning of FY25, the SBP reserves have been increasing each month reflecting both the inflows and dollar buying by the central bank from the currency market. The details showed that the SBP’s reserves