Business

ISLAMABAD: The export of raw food products consecutively surging for the sixth month in the current fiscal year forcing local consumers to pay higher prices. The food export value more than doubled to $787.36 million in January, up 105.29 per cent from $383.54m in the same month last year, according to data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The …

KARACHI: Growing doubts about the formation of a new coalition government amid raging protests against alleged manipulation of election results across the country kept the market sentiment depressed in the outgoing week. The equities received a massive battering on the first day of the trading week as nervous investors resorted to panic-selling amid an inordinate delay in announcing a clear-cut …

KARACHI: Several retailers have started charging Rs100 per kg extra on beef and mutton ahead of Ramazan thus exposing the lack of any official price-checking mechanism. Those retailers who were selling veal (Bachia) meat with and without bones at Rs1,000 and Rs1,200 are demanding Rs1,100 and Rs1,300 per kg, respectively. A customer in North Nazimabad N Block said he had …

ISLAMABAD: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations will implement a Sustainable and Regenerative Management of Rice Production in Pakistan, for which the Global Environment Facility (GEF) approved funding of $6.9 million last week. The project aims to enhance sustainable rice production landscapes in Sindh, one of Pakistan’s major rice-producing provinces. It will restore 15,000 hectares of …

KARACHI: The Economic Coordina­tion Committee’s (ECC) decision to increase the general sales tax to 25 per cent on locally produced vehicles of 1,400cc and above or priced Rs4 million will result in a drop in volumes and revenues. The auto assemblers said it is highly unlikely that a hike in GST would additionally generate revenue of Rs4 billion. The measure …

ISLAMABAD: Textile and clothing exports grew for the second consecutive month in January, according to data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday. The sector’s exports rose 10.10 per cent to $1.45 billion in January from $1.32bn in the same month last year. Month-on-month the exports increased by 3.33pc. However, in the first seven months of FY24, …

ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation has been on a downward trajectory for the third week in a row, decelerating to 34.25 per cent year-on-year in the week ending Feb 15, official data showed on Friday. This comes after a consistent 11-week period of inflation above 40pc, which surged from 29pc recorded on Nov 8, 2023. The spike was primarily fuelled by a …

ISLAMABAD: Mari Petroleum Company Ltd (MPCL) on Friday announced a gas discovery in a very prospective, highly security sensitive and unexplored region of Kohlu District in Balochistan. “The discovery is of significant importance for future exploration as it has revealed valuable information about the existing petroleum system of the area,” said MPCL, the operator of the block with 95pc interest …

KARACHI: Conventional banks lag far behind Islamic banks in lending to the private sector, with conventional banks still in the negative zone at the end of the seventh month of the current fiscal year, FY24. The latest data from the State Bank of Pakistan, issued on Friday, indicates that conventional banks continue to experience net debt retirement instead of lending …

KARACHI: The latest proposal of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to further liberalise imports could destabilise rupee-dollar parity, said market sources. “The IMF wants to see up to 45 per cent increase in the imports in the second half of the current fiscal year which would surely put pressure on the exchange rate,” a well-informed senior banker told Dawn on Thursday. He …