Business

LAHORE: Pakistan is struggling to achieve a decent cotton output this year if the arrival of 5.5 million bales reported by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) on Jan 18 is any guide. Overall, the country’s cotton production is estimated to decline during the present marketing year by almost a third to 5.7m bales from 8.3m bales last year and …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani exporters received more than $5 million worth of export orders from Sudan under the ‘Look Africa’ policy. An official announcement by the Ministry of Commerce said that the orders are the outcome of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) International Trade Fair at Khartoum which was held from Jan 21 to 28, 2021. This participation has opened …

KARACHI: Rural areas were hit more by food inflation than the urban areas, with the food inflationary gap between these areas increasing mostly in the second half of the calendar year 2020, the State Bank said in a recent report. The SBP report on inflation shows that food prices gradually increased during the last 12 months, both in urban and …

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collection in the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year stood at Rs2.570 trillion, surpassing the projected Rs2.550tr target by Rs20 billion, shows provisional data released on Saturday. However, the revenue collection increased by 6.4 per cent year-on-year when compared to Rs2.416tr during the same period last year. While preparing the …

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to recover the amount paid to fake registered persons (RPs) claiming refunds on the basis of fake/flying invoices. The direction came from the president while rejecting a representation filed by the FBR against the order of the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) in a case of bogus …

KARACHI: After a day of stopover, the stock market resumed its northward journey with the KSE-100 index ramping up 219.49 points, or 0.48 per cent, on the final day of the trading week, closing at 46,386 points. The index started out in green and shot up to intraday high by 491 points. Investors accumulated stocks despite the weekend ahead. In …

ISLAMABAD: The prices of key petroleum products — petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) — are estimated to go up by Rs9-11 per litre on Jan 31 for the first fortnight of February if straight calculations of Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) are accepted by the prime minister. However, based purely on international prices published in Platt’s Oilgram, the prices …

KARACHI: As a reflection of growing confidence in the economy, foreign investors parked $104 million in long-term Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) during the last three months (November-January) of FY21. Before emergence of Covid-19 pandemic, significant foreign inflows were noticed in short-term treasury bills, but since then massive outflows were witnessed following drastic cut in interest rates. However, this time the …

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday expressed the hope that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global illicit financing watchdog, would delist Pakistan from its grey list at its next plenary meeting. The meeting is scheduled to take place virtually from Feb 22 to 25. Briefing the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, the foreign minister said he was …

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide about $5.4 billion assistance to Pakistan over the next three years. This is part of the ADB’s five-year Country Partnership Strategy (CPS). “The indicative resources available for commitment during the first three years of the CPS period (2021-2023) total $5.4bn,” said the ADB on Thursday. This include $3.6bn for regular OCR (ordinary …