Business

MELBOURNE: Pakis­tan captain Shan Masood rued his side letting Australia off the hook at key moments in the second Test but was taking plenty of positives out of the 79-run defeat at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday. The performance was a clear improvement on that the tourists produced in losing the opener by 360 runs two weeks ago and …

MELBOURNE: Pakistan coach Mohammad Hafeez said technology was “putting a curse” on cricket after seeing Mohammad Rizwan dismissed following a lengthy review in the visitors’ 79-run defeat to Australia in the second Test on Friday. Set an imposing victory target of 317 runs on day four at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Rizwan (35) and Agha Salman (50) put together a …

KARACHI: Business owners have started gaining confidence as their expectations for a better future have risen 42 per cent from the preceding quarter, shows a latest survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan. “Relatively fewer business owners are pessimistic about future conditions and the direction of the country compared to Quarter 2,” according to the Gallup Business Confidence Index report based on …

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum recommended to the government on Friday that private parties should be allowed to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) which would not only improve its availability but would also bring down prices through competition. The committee met in the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Mohammad Abdul Qadir who recommended that officers from …

KARACHI: The second half of the outgoing year saw the benchmark of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) gain a staggering 54 per cent in dollar terms, making the national bourse the best-performing equity market globally. Based on data obtained from financial services firm Bloomberg, an analysis released by Topline Securities Ltd showed on Friday that the annual gain in the …

ISLAMABAD: The annual short-term inflation slightly rose to 43.25 per cent in the week ending on Dec 28, primarily fuelled by a massive increase in gas rates, official data showed on Friday. With the latest reading, the weekly inflation remained above 41pc for the seventh week in a row, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. On an annual basis, …

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmed on Friday said that political uncertainty weighed heavily on business and consumer sentiments resulting in a contraction of real GDP by 0.2 per cent in FY23. In the Governor’s Annual Report for 2022-23, which was issued very late as the first half of the current fiscal year has almost come to an …

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: While announcing initiatives to bring down the cost of doing business to spur industrial activities in the country’s economic nerve centre, Caretaker Commerce Minister Gohar Ejaz on Thursday said that Karachi is going to have a Garment City besides an enormous area of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) will be converted into a special zone for industrial development. Presiding over …

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday said the inflation rate will ease to around 20-22 per cent in the 2024 financial year, according to a report issued weeks ahead of the February 8 general elections. According to the SBP governor’s annual report on the past fiscal year, the bank will continue to make decisions to prevent high inflation …

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Friday approved a hike of around Rs1.72 per unit for K-Electric (KE) consumers on account of quarterly adjustments for electricity consumed in the second and third quarters of 2023. In its notification for adjustment in electricity rates of KE, Nepra said the tariff increase would apply to all consumer categories except lifeline consumers. The …