Business

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minis­ter Asad Umar has ruled out the possibility that the country may default on repayment of debt and claimed that due to some important decisions being taken by the government to strengthen the economy, Pakistan is better placed to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund. Talking to anchorpersons here on Thursday, he said the country was not solely …

DUBLIN: Ireland kicked off its funding drive for 2019 by raising 4 billion euros in a new 10-year bond sale after being swamped with bids for four times that amount, the country’s debt agency said on Wednesday. Ireland has begun its annual fundraising with a syndicated sale every year since 2013 and was among the first eurozone sovereigns out of …

RAWALPINDI: Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Investment and Textile, Abdul Razak Dawood on Wednesday said business community has been the top priority of government and the focus was to strengthen the interaction with traders. The minister was talking to a delegation of Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry led by its President Malik Shahid Saleem,. Mr Dawood said that …

KARACHI: Master Motor Corporation (MMC) will start assembling Iveco trucks in Pakistan this year, said the company’s Chief Executive Danial Malik on Wednesday. He made the announcement while inaugurating the company’s first facility and showroom in Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate Area. “We have imported eight Iveco trucks in the last 2-3 months but now we have decided to start …

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has issued directives to the insurance sector for protection against cyber attacks, saying the probability of cyber risk is greater today than ever before due to increasing reliance on technology for business operations and expansion of financial technology. The SECP directives, issued under SRO 31 (I)/2019 on Wednesday, warned that all …

RIYADH: Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia announced a slight rise in its crude oil reserves on Wednesday after they were independently audited, providing more detail about the size of deposits shrouded in secrecy for decades. Saudi Arabia’s reserves of easily recoverable oil have long been the world’s largest but few details were public. The external audit was started as part …

KARACHI: Pakistan exported 125,000 tonnes of kinno from December 2018 till to date at the rate of $500 per tonne. The country fixed the export target at 350,000 tonnes for this season, which will conclude in March/April. All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) Patron-in-Chief Waheed Ahmed on Tuesday stated that the kinno export target would …

KARACHI: Deposit growth of the banking system stalled in 2018 despite one of the largest interest hikes of 4.25 per cent in a single year. At 8pc, the rise in deposits was the slowest in a decade, according to a research note put out by Topline Securities. The State Bank of Pakistan reported deposits of scheduled banks grew by Rs992.11 …

ISLAMABAD: Amid a 24 per cent shortfall in cotton production this year, Finance Minister Asad Umar gave vent to his irritation over repeated presentation of half-baked ideas before the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet and returned issues of duty-free import of cotton and revival of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) to relevant ministries. The ECC meeting had been called …

ISLAMABAD: Hoping to overcome prevailing gas shortage, the government on Tuesday decided to announce a new power policy along with a 25-year composite energy strategy this month. This was the crux of a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan. The meeting took stock of increasing number of complaints regarding gas and electricity …