Rejecting the 1% cut in interest rate as tiny, industrialists and traders have asked the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to do more, with a view to boosting economic growth. They said the poor economic strategy of the government and the central bank dismayed the entire business community of the country. They called for a more holistic and pragmatic approach to monetary policy, one that aligns not
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has not endorsed Pakistan's proposal to further reduce industrial electricity prices by Rs2.70 per unit through the complete elimination of cross-subsidies, which the sector is providing to shoulder subsidies to low-end residential consumers. Energy ministry sources told The Express Tribune that the ministry floated the proposal to further reduce electricit
Despite strong anticipation of a sixth straight cut in the interest rate at the monetary policy review meeting later in the evening, the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday witnessed a roller-coaster session mainly due to political instability, a hike in gas tariffs and disappointing corporate results. The Economic Coordination Committee’s decision to increase the gas tariff by almost 17pc for
HAVING slashed its key policy rate by yet another 100bps to 12pc, the bigger question for the State Bank now is whether or not it should pause the ongoing monetary easing cycle, which has seen the rate being cut by 1,000bps since June to preserve the recently achieved fragile stability. Though the bank had long stopped providing forward guidance on interest rates, the latest monetary policy sta
Chinese startup DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence (AI) Assistant on Monday overtook rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available on Apple’s App Store in the United States. Powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model, which its creators say “tops the leaderboard among open-source models and rivals the most advanced closed-source models globally”, the artificial intelligence application