Business

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 …

KARACHI: The country should do away with restrictions on dollar outflows to attract long-term foreign investment in efficiency-seeking sectors, said economist Ali Khizar in a webinar on Wednesday. Taking part in a panel discussion on the challenges in attracting foreign investment, Mr Khizar listed several structural problems that have led to foreign investors exiting the Pakistan market with negative returns …

ISLAMABAD: For a change, the country’s five leading oil and gas companies joined hands on Wednesday to delve into green energy projects as the world moves towards an energy transition away from fossil fuels. The five public sector entities including Oil & Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL), Pak-Arab Refinery Ltd (Parco), Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL), Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (MPCL) …

KARACHI: Investors sold stocks on Wednesday to book profits, leading the representative index of the share market to close on the lower side. Topline Securities said buying interest was visible in selected blue-chip sto­c­ks during the early trading hours. But the news of the arrest warrant for PTI chairman Imran Khan dented the momentum. The news flow compelled the stock …

ISLAMABAD: The European Union (EU) has removed Pakistan from its ‘list of high-risk third-countries’ that have strategic deficiencies in the Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari revealed this on Wednesday echoing a similar decision taken by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) months ago when it removed the country from its …