Despite some strengthening of crude prices over the last few days on account of the heating up of the Russia-Ukraine war, pressure has been building up on the oil markets from all directions. A guessing game is thus on. How would the crude markets behave in the New Year? It may be too early to pass a judgment. Investors are fretting over weaker Chinese demand and a potential slowing in the pace
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