Shrugging off the rising political noise following the landmark apex court ruling on reserve seats, equity investors on Monday celebrated the reaching of a Staff-Level Agreement (SLA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $7 billion credit line, tossing the benchmark KSE 100 index to an all-time high above 81,000. Also, an expected softening of monetary policy aided market optimism a
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecasted that Pakistan’s economy will grow by 3.5% in the fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25). This projection falls slightly below the Pakistani government’s target of 3.6%, which was announced in the latest budget, and comes amidst a backdrop of sluggish global economic activity. According to Pakistan's economic survey, the country’s GDP grew by only 2.4%
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has predicted that inflation in Pakistan will remain high in the current fiscal year. The bank's latest Asian Development Outlook report raised its economic growth forecast for developing Asia and the Pacific from 4.9% to 5%, but Pakistan faced a more challenging outlook. The ADB forecast that Pakistan’s inflation rate, which had decreased from 38% to 11.8%,
The cabinet has placed a price cap on sugar to regulate its export in a bid to avoid manipulation of domestic prices. Sources informed The Express Tribune that the cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, decided that if the retail price of sugar exceeds the benchmark ex-mill price or the retail price plus Rs2, further exports will be immediately stopped. In the past, there have be
Over the last five years, food inflation, as measured by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, has accumulated to more than 114 per cent, compounding by 22pc on an annual basis and exceeding overall inflation levels. Food inflation’s impact and affordability play a critical role in determining wages, as expenditure on food makes up more than 47.1 per cent of the poorest quintile and 44.5pc of the