Pakistan’s power generation capacity expansion process continues to face credibility challenges despite being regularly conducted with an established regulatory framework. Consequently, the government has built power plants to cater to a demand that is simply not there, leaving Pakistan with more electricity than it can consume and more capacity payments than it can afford. There is a consisten
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has set an ambitious $25 billion IT export target in five years amid better utilisation of resources and provision of training and education to the workforce. The premier, who chaired a review meeting on IT sector reforms, expressed hope that the estimated target will be met. An official announcement of the PMO said that the Ministry of Information Technology (I
Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), was 4.92 per cent year-on-year in the week ending Nov 21 owing to surging vegetable and edible oil prices. The SPI-based inflation reversed to a modest increase after three straight weeks of decline on an annual basis. On week-on-week, it increased by 0.67pc, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data showed on Friday. After brief st
The International Monetary Fund approved the third review of Sri Lanka’s $2.9 billion bailout on Saturday but warned that the South Asian economy remains vulnerable. In a statement, the IMF said it would release about $333m, bringing total funding to around $1.3bn, to the crisis-hit nation. It said signs of an economic recovery were emerging. The country still needs to complete a $12.5bn bo
Exports of non-textile products rose by 17.66 per cent to $4.73 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year, up from $4.02bn during the same period last year, largely driven by the growth of value-added products. The main driver of non-textile product exports is raw food items and a few value-added products, including leather, footwear and engineering, during 4MFY25, from a year