Following approval of the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan has received the first tranche amounting to $1 billion. Immediately thereafter, the exchange value of the rupee registered an uptick, as the IMF loan will also make it easier to borrow both multilaterally and bilaterally. According to the fund, the new three-year credit programme
Climate change is becoming one of the most significant concerns for agricultural workers worldwide, particularly in susceptible areas like Sindh. As temperatures rise and weather patterns grow more irregular, the farming sector, which is the foundation of Sindh’s economy, suffers significantly. Female farm workers, who account for a sizable share of the labour force, are among those most affect
Pakistan is a massive country of over 225 million souls, and with a fifth-gear population growth rate of 2.55 per cent per annum, it faces the grim task of feeding its population. The country is also one of the top ten countries with climate change risk in the world. The economy is precarious and, with one of the highest GDP-to-public debt ratios in the world, faces the daunting task of rebuild
The World Bank said in a report released last week that the poverty rate in Pakistan stood at 40.5 per cent. That means about 100 million out of 240m plus Pakistanis are living on less than $3.65 per day as per the purchasing power parity of 2017. In simple words, 100m Pakistanis cannot use their daily income to buy today with what they could have bought with $3.65 in 2017. Hence, they are conside
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked Pakistan to swiftly end preferential treatment, tax exemptions and other protections for the agriculture and textile sectors, which it says have stifled the country’s growth potential for decades. In its staff report on the diagnosis of the factors behind Pakistan’s struggling economy, the IMF blamed these two sectors not only for failing to cont