In July 2024, the first month of the new fiscal year FY25, Pakistan’s trade deficit soared 19.7 per cent to $1.9 billion as imports grew much faster than exports. Month-on-month national consumer inflation in July hit an eight-month high of 2.1pc, when it is generally around 1pc. Imports will surely continue to expand throughout this fiscal year and exports’ growth will likely remain slower tha
In an attempt to address the long-standing financial and operational challenges in the country’s power sector, the prime minister has announced the formation of a high-level task force dedicated to implementing structural reforms. The initiative aims to reduce the “financial burden of the sector being borne by the federal government and to enable the establishment of an efficient, liquid and se
The government may soon abolish regulatory bodies of the devolved subjects, particularly health and education, do away with transport facilities for all the federal ministries and divisions, phase out non-executive staff at the Centre and merge aviation and maritime divisions with the defence ministry as part of an upcoming restructuring and austerity drive. The government has been under critic
Pakistani shares extended losses to the third straight day on Thursday amid falling trading volume, thanks to mounting political noise and uncertainty about the economic outlook. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks closed under pressure on institutional profit-taking in blue-chis banking and oil scrips. He said falling banking spreads amid easing monetary policy, surging unre
THERE was one line in Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s remarks last Sunday that caught my eye. In his press conference on that day, he announced that Islamabad is seeking the re-profiling of $27 billion worth of debt owed to China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as per a news report. He did not bring up the subject of debt re-profiling himself, preferring to focus his remarks on less sensitive