Pakistan’s trade deficit with nine Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries widened by over 41 per cent to $11.703 billion in FY24 from $8.298bn in the preceding fiscal year due to a sharp increase in imports from China, Russia and India. The heads of state from SCO nations are in Islamabad to attend the 25th summit, which aims to strengthen multilateral cooperation among member states
Improvements in the external front of the economy helped the country attract $125 million during the four days of October, taking the total above $570m since July FY25. According to the latest data released by the State Bank, inflows have reached $125 million, reflecting a sign of confidence in the economy. The inflow was not much different from June, when foreign inflows had reached $194m, rai
The government has increased the price of diesel by Rs5 per litre, while the rate of petrol has been kept the same for the next fortnights, according to an official announcement. This is the first hike in the prices of petroleum products in three months, which have been constantly going down due to the falling prices in the international market. In a late-night announcement on Tuesday, t
On the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, the stock market came under selling pressure on Monday, pushing the KSE 100 index to close in the red amid a host of depressants, mainly the PTI’s protest plan. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said equities closed under pressure on political noise and foreign outflows. He added that the government action on IPP paymen
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