Business

KARACHI: Pakistan expects to cut its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection for the financial year 2022-2023 from five per cent to three per cent due to losses from the catastrophic monsoon rains and floods, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Friday. His warning came as the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) reported that the death toll from the deadly floods …

ISLAMABAD: The National Elec­tric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday notified a Rs4.12 per unit reduction in fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for K-Electric consumers for power consumed in July. According to the notification, the FCA for KE would be lowered by Rs4.12 per unit in July against KE’s petition for Rs3.48 due to a fall in global fuel prices over …

ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday promised to start making payments to independent power producers (IPPs) set up under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor early next week and set a schedule for regular monthly payments for a full fiscal year to the satisfaction of Chinese investors. Pakistan’s Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) owes around Rs260 billion to Chinese IPPs on account of …

WASHINGTON: A US State Department report released on Friday said Pakistan disclosed “generally reliable” information about the current fiscal budget and its audit met “international standards of independence.” The report, which is sent to the US Congress and influences policy making, however, still placed Pakistan among the countries that did not make significant progress in improving fiscal transparency. The report …

Elon Musk on Friday added a severance payment made by Twitter to a whistleblower to the list of reasons he feels entitled to walk away from his $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform. A termination letter sent to Twitter accused the firm of not informing him about a multi-million dollar severance payment it made in June to departing security …

The rupee, which has been declining for nearly a week, fell by Rs2.76 against the dollar in the interbank market on Friday. The PKR closed at Rs228.18 per dollar, depreciating 1.21 per cent from yesterday’s close. Mettis Global Director Saad bin Naseer said he exchange rate was under pressure because of payments and a demand-and-supply gap. He added that the …

FRANKFURT: The Euro­pean Central Bank anno­unced the largest rate hike in its history on Thursday and said there were more to come as it scrambles to pull inflation down from record heights. Policymakers lifted the ECB’s key rates by 75 basis points, a leap matched only by a technical move made in 1999 shortly after the central bank’s founding. Eurozone …

European Union countries’ energy ministers meet on Friday to search for solutions from a long list of possible measures to shield citizens from sky-high energy prices as winter approaches. The basis for the talks is a set of proposals made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — among them, a price cap on Russian gas, a windfall levy on non-gas …

Inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) clocked in at 42.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) for the week that ended on September 8, data shared by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Friday. Inflation in the preceding week was measured at 45.5pc YoY — an all-time high — as prices of vegetables surged following the damage caused by the floods. The …

Oil prices rose on Friday as investors considered Russia’s threat to halt oil and gas exports to some buyers, but crude was set for a second straight weekly decline as central banks’ aggressive rate hikes and China’s Covid-19 curbs weighed on demand. Brent crude futures rose 27 cents, or 0.3 per cent, to $89.42 a barrel by 0330 GMT. US …