Business

ISLAMABAD: The export of services posted a growth of 31.72 per cent year-on-year to $563.95 million in March, showed data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. After having contracted in the previous year, the export of services bounced back since January this year. However, the service exports in July-March period of 2020-21 grew by just 0.61pc to $4.37bn as …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have agreed to give strategic direction to their ties through the Saudi-Pakistan Supreme Coordination Council (SP-SCC) by strengthening and diversifying existing bilateral cooperation in different fields. For this purpose, the Saudi Development Fund will finance projects worth $500 million, according to the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The projects to be launched under …

ISLAMABAD: The country’s fiscal deficit has increased to 3.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) or Rs1.652 trillion during the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year despite a drastic cut in development, almost static defence expenditure, healthy provincial cash surpluses and record petroleum levy collections. The consolidated data on fiscal operations for the first three quarters …

KARACHI: The most attractive long-term domestic papers — Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) — witnessed another significant cut up to 65 basis points in the auction held on Thursday. The auction was held for fixed rate PIBs. The government, which has been raising maximum liquidity from banks, slashed cut-off yields on all PIBs for all tenors. The details issued by the …

KARACHI: Despite second and third waves of Covid-19, the collection of the Sindh Excise and Taxation Department rose Rs17 billion, or 26.36 per cent, to Rs81.5bn during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year compared to Rs64.5bn collected in the same period last year. Data released by the E&T department showed that in July-April FY21 the total collection …

ISLAMABAD: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) on Thursday awarded a $354.6 million worth of contract to Power Construction Corporation of China Ltd (PCCCL) for civil works of the 1,530MW Tarbela 5th Extension Hydropower Project after completion of an international competitive bidding process. The contract was signed by Project Director Tarbela 5th Extension Project Muhammad Azam Joya and PCCCL …

KARACHI: For facilitating trade and industry, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has decided to keep banks open on May 10-11, while the Ministry of Commerce also announced that export industries and their suppliers — indirect exporters — will remain operational on May 10-12. Earlier, the SBP announced that banks will remain closed from May 10 to 15th for Eid …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit posted double-digit rise as it widened by 21.6 per cent to $23.83 billion in the 10 months of 2020-21 from $19.59bn over the corresponding period last year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data showed on Wednesday. The trade gap has been widening since December 2020. The surge in trade deficit is mainly led by exponential growth …

KARACHI: The government again slashed the cut-off yields on treasury bills (T-bills) while it raised Rs617.8 billion in an auction on Wednesday. The cut-off yield on the benchmark six-month T-bills was slashed by14 basis points to raise Rs299.4bn. In the last auction held on April 21 the rate was slashed by 11bps. The bidding trend showed presence of huge liquidity …

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Wednesday approved payment of Rs90 billion to 35 independent power producers (IPPs). The ECC also decided to give a last chance to K-Electric (KE) for settling Rs212bn payments and inking an agreement for additional power intake from the national grid on timely payments. The ECC meeting, presided over by Minister …