News

Current account gap narrows to $74m

The current account deficit (CAD) narrowed year-on-year by 91 per cent in October but it widened on a month-on-month basis. The latest data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday shows the deficit remained within the estimate of the bank. Last week, the SBP governor said that CAD would remain well below $100m in October and expected that it would be well-contained in 2023-24. T

Jazz invests over Rs20bn in CY23

Jazz has invested Rs20.6 billion mainly under its 4G-for-All initiative in the first nine months of the calendar year 2023, bringing the overall investment in Pakistan to $10.6bn. In a statement on Monday, Jazz said that despite 27 per cent year-on-year growth in overall revenues in the local currency, Jazz’s revenue declined by 3.5pc in dollar terms during the third quarter of 2023. This do

IMF board to approve staff-level agreement on Dec 7

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is tentatively scheduled for Dec 7 to approve the Staff-Level Agreement (SLA) with Pakistan for the first review of the $3bn Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) leading to disbursement of about $700 million on Dec 8. The IMF staff and the Pakistani authorities reached the SLA on Nov 15 in Islamabad, according to an end-of-mission statement. Th

Pakistan floats LNG tender to meet winter demand

Pakistan on Monday floated an urgent international tender for a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargo in the first part of January to meet anticipated peak winter shortage in the residential sector. The tender, issued by the state-run Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) with a four-day notice, asked bidders to submit technical and financial bids by Nov 24 for a standard LNG cargo with targeted delivery on J

Fuel cost adjustment of Rs3.5 more per unit to further inflate bills

The Cen­tral Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) on Mon­day sought a massive Rs3.55 per unit as fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for ex-Wapda distribution comp­anies (Discos) to raise another Rs33bn from consumers in Dece­mber, des­pite a healthy 76 per cent ele­ctricity generation from cheaper domestic fuels. This comes on top of about 26pc increase in the annual base tariff and around 18pc hike under th