Business

KARACHI: Commodity traders claim sale of various food items used for preparing ration packs has remained highly subdued this Ramazan as compared to the last year due to skyrocketing prices and shrinking purchasing power of the people. There is a tradition that people prepare ration packets and distribute them among the needy especially during Ramazan. However, inflated electricity bills, gas …

KARACHI: Minority shareholders of Ecopack Ltd — a listed company that makes plastic bottles for beverage firms — have sought the intervention of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to protect the entity from hostile and allegedly illegal takeover by a group of seven investors. The seven acquirers “acted in concert” to accumulate over 50 per cent shareholding …

Saudi Arabia’s cabinet approved on Wednesday a decision to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), as Riyadh builds a long-term partnership with China despite US security concerns. Saudi Arabia has approved a memorandum on granting the kingdom the status of a dialogue partner in the SCO, said Saudi Press Agency (SPA). The SCO is a political and security union of …

ISLAMABAD: The government has asked the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to increase K-Electric’s consumer tariff by up to Rs6.02 per unit under two past quarterly adjustments and allow its recovery from consumers in three months — April to June — to ensure national uniform tariff. The government has already notified an equivalent increase in tariff for consumers of …

BEIJING: Chinese national oil company CNOOC and France’s TotalEnergies have completed China’s first yuan-settled LNG trade through the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange, the exchange said on Tuesday. Approximately 65,000 tonnes of LNG imported from the UAE changed hands in the trade, it said in a statement. TotalEnergies confirmed to Reuters that the transaction involved LNG imported from the UAE but …

KARACHI: The repatriation of dollars by foreign companies plunged 88 per cent during the first 8 months of the current fiscal year reflecting low profits and stringent restrictions on outflows from the country. Data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday did show that the government policy of curbing dollar outflows severely impacted the foreign direct investment …

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Monday approved about Rs72 billion financing facility for payment of the Balochistan government’s obligations in the Reko Diq Project dispute settlement. The meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, however, deferred proposals for increasing the minimum prices of about 177 medicines because of poor defence by the Drug Regulatory …

ISLAMABAD: With food inflation hitting up to 42 per cent in urban areas, a large number of consumers have opted for slightly cheap but ‘high quality’ Iranian ‘smuggled’ products, such as oil and cheese, readily available in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Several shops in twin cities have dedicated racks for Iranian goods, but the best place to bargain for these items, …

China spent $240 billion bailing out 22 developing countries between 2008 and 2021, with the amount soaring in recent years as more have struggled to repay loans spent building “Belt & Road” infrastructure, according to a study published Tuesday. Almost 80 per cent of the rescue lending was made between 2016 and 2021, mainly to middle-income countries including Argentina, Mongolia …

Currently in the works, the petroleum price relief scheme aims to ease the inflation bite for low-income households without burdening the exchequer. It makes political sense for the embattling ruling coalition in an election year, but it has so far failed to generate goodwill even among the targeted beneficiaries: bikers, rickshaw drivers and small car users. Four days after increasing …