Business

Large-scale manufacturing (LSM) declined by 7.75 per cent year-on-year in October, with the textile, machinery and equipment, and automobiles sectors shrinking, data shared by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Thursday. The LSM had swung to growth in September, posting an annual increase of 0.1pc compared to August, official data showed. That was quite an improvement from July when the …

The United States Federal Reserve moderated its all-out campaign to cool inflation on Wednesday, lifting the benchmark lending rate by a half percentage point though warning there is still “some ways to go”. America’s central bank has taken aggressive moves to ease demand in the world’s biggest economy, hiking rates seven times this year with interest-sensitive sectors like housing already …

KARACHI: Remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis declined by 14 per cent in November this year. The inflows fell by 9.6 per cent during the first five months of the current fiscal year (FY23). The latest data released by the State Bank on Wednesday showed that the remittances kept falling and declined to $2.1 billion in November from $2.5bn during the …

Oil prices were largely unchanged in early Asian trade on Thursday as traders weighed optimism over China’s demand outlook against the possibility of further interest rate hikes from global central banks. Brent crude futures were up one cent at $82.71 per barrel at 0121 GMT while US crude futures fell four cents to $77.24. The market was bolstered by projections …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan exported 120,000 mobile phone sets to various markets in the Middle East and Africa in the current month, but the local manufacturer expressed dissatisfaction over the quantum. Addressing a ceremony held at the Pakistan Tele­communication Auth­ority (PTA) headquarters to mark the achievement, Member (Finance) Muha­mmad Naveed and Member (Compl­iance & Enfor­cement) Dr Khawar Sidd­ique Khokhar extended their support …

LONDON: Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, saw withdrawals of about $2 billion in the last 24 hours, blockchain data firm Nansen said on Tuesday, as the platform said it had “temporarily paused” withdrawals of the USDC stablecoin. Binance, whose dominance of crypto was cemented by the bankruptcy of rival exchange FTX, last week tweeted a so-called proof-of-reserves report by …

KARACHI: Two of the country’s financial managers — past and present — cannot agree on whether the national economy is still in the red or out of danger. In interviews with private media broadcast on Tuesday night, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and his predecessor Miftah Ismail put forward their views on the state of Pakistan’s economy: while Mr Dar argued that …

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Wednesday that Pakistan’s economic outlook for the fiscal year ending in June 2023 has “deteriorated under heavy flooding” while the “economy was already struggling to regain macroeconomic and fiscal stability”. In the supplement report titled ‘Asian Development Outlook 2022 Supplement’, ADB said flood disruption and damage in the country are “expected to slow real Gross …

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Representative for Pakistan Esther Perez Ruiz said on Wednesday that discussions between Islamabad and the international moneylender on the ninth review of $7bn Extended Fund Facility had been “productive” so far. Pakistan entered a $6bn IMF programme in 2019, which was increased to $7bn earlier this year. The programme’s ninth review is currently pending with …

The Biden administration plans to place Chinese chip-maker Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) and 35 other Chinese firms on a trade blacklist that would prevent them from buying certain American components, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday. The US Department of Commerce would add the Chinese companies to a so-called ‘Entity List’ as early as this week, the report said, citing a person familiar with …