Category: Business

KARACHI: The All Pak­istan Cement Manufac­turers Association (APCMA) finally released the cement sales data on Friday revealing a 5.5 per cent decline in domestic despatches during July-August attributing it to economic contraction, while exports posted 12.66pc jump. The APCMA had suspended releasing sales and exports data since April due to unknown reasons. How­ever, it has […]

KARACHI: Stalled since the infamous Supreme Court judgment in the Pakistan Steel Mills case, the privatisation process might be set to start again this fiscal year, said Privatisation Minister Mohammadmian Soomro on Friday. The intention to begin the process this year was shared by the minister during an interactive session with investors and analysts from […]

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank will shortly approve the energy sector reforms and financial sustainability programme worth $350 million that aims to address fiscal, governance, technical and policy deficits in Pakistan’s energy sector. These deficits have adversely impacted the sector’s quality and efficiency of services, and the sustainability of energy infrastructure and finances, thereby challenging […]

International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokesperson Gerry Rice on Thursday said that one of the key elements of the IMF programme in Pakistan was the need to mobilise domestic tax revenue to fund the “much needed” social and development spending while placing debt on a “firm downward trend”. The IMF executive board on July 3 had approved a […]

ISLAMABAD: The country’s trade deficit shrank by nearly 38 per cent in the first two months of current fiscal year, driven largely by a decline in imports of non-essential luxury items. The constant decline in trade deficit shows the government’s battle against bloated trade deficit is finally bearing fruit as imports have plummeted despite paltry […]

KARACHI: Car sales during July and August nosedived by massive 41.3 per cent to 20,094 units compared to 34,264 during the corresponding months last year. In August, total car sales lowered to 9,126 units versus 15,389 in the same month last year. Major auto assemblers including Honda Atlas Cars Limited (HACL) scaled down production for […]

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 1,187 new companies in August, out of which 94 per cent companies were registered online through eServices and 52pc companies registered within same day, raising the number of total companies to 104,030. Foreign investment has been reported in 38 new companies. These companies have foreign […]

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to bring in professional expertise to improve the governance of the state-owned entities (SOEs), and a proposal to reconstitute the board of Sarmaya Pakistan Limited (SPL) will be submitted to the prime minister in the coming weeks. Chairing a meeting on Thursday, Finance Adviser Abdul Hafeez Shaikh emphasised the need […]

KARACHI: The State Bank will announce Monetary Policy on Monday (Sept 16) for next two months. The financial sector expects a cut in the policy rate following a 31 basis points drop in the cut-off yield for 12-month papers in auction of Treasury Bills held on Wednesday. For the last over a year the interest […]

ISLAMABAD: Based on Pakis­tan’s ‘effective’ progress report, the Asia-Pacific Joint Group (APG) will submit next month its assessment of Islamabad’s progress on strengthening of its systems against money laundering and terror financing. “The Pakistan delegation effectively presented Pakistan’s progress on each of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Action Plan items and provided additional information/clarification […]