Business

Oil prices edged higher on Friday but were on track for a weekly decline amid fears of sharp interest rate hikes that would slam global growth and hit fuel demand. Brent crude futures were up 24 cents, or 0.3 per cent, to $91.08 a barrel as of 0315 GMT, but were down 1.9pc for the week so far. US West …

The dollar hovered near its recent peaks on Friday as expectations that the United States Federal Reserve would need to hike more to tame inflation sent Treasury yields higher and kept the greenback in demand. The towering dollar pushed the offshore yuan past the critical threshold of seven per dollar for the first time in more than two years overnight, …

The rupee, which has been declining for over a week, fell by 96 paise against the dollar during early trade in the interbank market on Friday. The PKR closed at Rs236.84 per dollar, a 0.41 per cent depreciation from yesterday’s close of Rs235.88. Fores Association of Pakistan (FAP) Chairman Malik Bostan said the rupee’s value was declining due to the …

COLOMBO: Bankrupt Sri Lanka’s economy shrank 8.4 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter, official data showed on Thursday, as the island nation’s unprecedented financial crisis reached its peak. Months of acute food, fuel and medicine shortages, extended blackouts and runaway inflation have plagued the country after it ran out of dollars to finance even the most essential imports. Sri …

Indian industrialist Gautam Adani briefly became the world’s second-richest person on the Forbes real-time billionaire tracker on Friday, weeks after becoming the first Asian to break into the top three. The self-made billionaire’s net worth surged $4 billion overnight to $154bn, according to Forbes, ranking him ahead of LVMH’s Bernard Arnault and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Tesla founder Elon Musk remained …

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday said that there is no restriction on the import of raw materials for any industry including export-oriented industries. “It is further clarified that SBP has advised banks to seek prior permission before initiating transactions for import of motor cars (CKD), mobile phones (CKD) and machinery,” said the SBP. Some media reports …

KARACHI: Despite an upsurge in inflation that has pushed the cost of living across the globe in the post-Covid era, the overseas Pakistanis remitted a higher amount of $2.7 billion in August. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday reported that the country received $2.724bn in August, a growth of almost eight per cent on a month-on-month basis. However, …

Oil prices inched lower on Wednesday on concerns of another United States Federal Reserve interest rate hike next week after consumer prices unexpectedly rose in August, outweighing support from a robust Opec oil demand growth forecast. Brent crude futures fell 38 cents, or 0.4 per cent, to $92.79 a barrel by 0407 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude was at …

The dollar climbed close to a 24-year peak against the yen on Wednesday amid a jump in United States yields after hotter-than-expected inflation boosted bets for even more aggressive monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve next week. The dollar rose as high as 144.965 yen in the Asian session, taking it close to the high of 144.99 hit a week …

The Pakistani rupee continued to lose ground against the dollar for the ninth consecutive session on Wednesday, with the PKR sliding by Rs2.4 in the interbank market. The local currency closed at Rs234.32 per dollar, depreciating 1.02 per cent from yesterday’s close. Saad bin Naseer, director of financial data and analytics portal Mettis Global, said the rupee “tumbled on the back …