Category: Business

KARACHI: Banks have enough cash to sail through a liquidity crunch for six months as borrowers seek to delay principal payments on loan obligations amidst the coronavirus outbreak. Speaking to Dawn on Tuesday, Pakistan Banks’ Association (PBA) Chairman Muhammad Aurangzeb said the balance sheets of commercial lenders are in good shape to sustain poor cash flows in […]

OFFICIALS were quick to confine pilgrims and other Pakistanis coming from Iran as news of cases of Covid-19 in the religious city of Qom broke through. A great chunk of the province’s budget was channelled to Taftan, the town bordering Iran, through the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and the health department. However, the entire […]

FACT is stranger than fiction. It’s time to buy when there is blood on the street, they say on Wall Street. But not when there is an unending massacre. Yet the benchmark KSE-100 index staged a massive rally of 3,512 points in the last five trading sessions, providing the highest-ever weekly return of 12.5 per […]

THE raft of fiscal, monetary and policy measures proposed by Prime Minister Imran Khan last week to reboot the dormant construction sector is likely to generate little activity, and that too not before Eidul Fitr. And if the coronavirus threat persists for a longer period — and it appears it will linger at least through […]

Oil prices slipped on Monday, after Saudi Arabia and Russia delayed a meeting to discuss output cuts that could partly alleviate oversupply in global markets as the coronavirus pandemic pummels demand. Brent crude slipped close to $30 a barrel in early trade and was at $33.45 by 5:32am GMT, down 66 cents, or 1.9 per […]

LAHORE: Various quarters are suggesting the government give an option to those who benefited from the sugar export subsidy to return the money they secured to avert action against them, and the funds thus recovered be diverted to assistance of the coronavirus-hit people. Former chairman of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s […]

ISLAMABAD: Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday estimated Pakistan’s growth rate could further slide to two per cent during the current fiscal year owing to Covid-19 outbreak and believed recent steps by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would soften the impact of the pandemic on the country’s banks. On March 17, the Moody’s had formally […]

LONDON: Oil prices rocketed on Thursday after US President Donald Trump said Russia and Saudi Arabia planned to end their price war by slashing output. But gains for Brent North Sea crude of nearly 46 per cent cooled to around 20 per cent as Russia denied it had spoken to Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest […]

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday ordered a relief package specifically for the construction industry and directed resumption of all China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) related infrastructure and energy projects. The package for construction industry will be unveiled today (Friday). The premier also directed formation of a Codal Research Committee (CRC) for devising an action […]

ISLAMABAD: Faced with increasing liabilities in the energy sector, a cabinet committee on Thursday decided to engage with private investors in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals and power projects to renegotiate terms of their capacity payments, return on equity and exchange rate indexation. A meeting of the reconstituted Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) led […]