Business

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s public debt increased by over 28 per cent or Rs11.3 trillion between June 2021 and September 2022 to Rs51.13tr mainly because of policy prescriptions like devaluations and interest rate hikes, rather than additional debt inflows for economic growth. The total public debt which was Rs39.87tr by end-June 2021, increased to Rs49.19tr by end-June 2022, showing an increase of …

ISLAMABAD: With weekly and monthly price indicators already showing record annual increases, the finance ministry on Friday forecast inflation to rise further due to a second-round effect of policy decisions made earlier to raise energy and fuel prices, the central bank’s policy rate, and the rupee’s depreciation to secure IMF funding. “Inflation may further jack up as a result of a …

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) missed its collection target for March by almost 8.80 per cent, or Rs64 billion, owing to a sharp drop in imports as well as poor performance in domestic collection of sales tax, showed provisional data released on Friday. The revenue collection stood at Rs663bn in March as against the target of Rs727bn. This …

ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, based on the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose to 45.36 per cent for the combined income group on a year-on-year basis for the week ending March 22, data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Friday. However, following a persistent increase for three consecutive weeks, the SPI dropped 0.36pc week-on-week with a slight decline …

KARACHI: Amid production suspensions and rising prices, Honda Atlas Cars Ltd (HACL) on Friday extended its plant shutdown from April 1-15. In a stock filing on Friday, the company said the supply chain has been severely disrupted due to restrictions on the opening of letters of credit (LCs) for the import of kits and accessories. Meanwhile, Atlas Honda Ltd (AHL) …

ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday kicked off outsourcing of operations and land assets at three major airports to be run through a public-private partnership, a finance ministry statement said, a move to generate foreign exchange reserves. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has approved the hiring of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) — the private sector arm of the World Bank …

KARACHI: The central bank’s foreign exchange reserves dropped for the first time in six weeks, shrinking by some $354 million during the week that ended on March 24, it said on Thursday. Meanwhile, China is working on a request from cash-strapped Pakistan to roll over a $2 billion loan that matured last week, a top finance ministry official told Reuters, …

ISLAMABAD: The 969-megawatt Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project would get back to power generation by July after a year-long closure due to tunnel collapse and K-Electric (KE) is entering into a 10-year agreement with the federal government for enhancing its intake from national grid to 2,600MW. These were the upshot of the two separate public hearings on increase in fuel charges …

KARACHI: The method that banks use for calculating their expected credit cost will change under the revised set of accounting standards that may lead to a higher exp­ense for commercial lenders in the medium term. Speaking to Dawn on Thursday, JS Global Capital Ltd Head of Research Amreen Soorani said banks will start reporting their loss expectations on investments and loans under …

Finance minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday that China had rolled over a $2 billion loan that matured last week, providing relief during the nation’s acute balance of payment crisis. Locking in a rollover had been critical for Pakistan, where reserves have dipped to just four weeks’ worth of imports and talks over an IMF bailout tranche of $1.1 billion …