Category: Recent Post

ISLAMABAD: With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reportedly insisting on politically challenging contractionary monetary and fiscal policies as prior second tranche release conditions, the Khan administration appears to be caught between a rock and a hard place. Sources on condition of anonymity told this newspaper that negotiations with the Fund for the resumption of the stalled extended Fund facility include: (i) an increase in the policy rate by 200 to 300 basis points, a decision that may choke off all economic activity like in the previous year; and (ii) a…

Read More

The Cons-umer Price Index-based inflation of October 2020 increased by 1.70 percent over September 2020, and increased by 8.91 percent over corresponding month of the last year i.e. October 2019 as a result of increase in food items including sugar, pulses, chicken, and wheat flour. According to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) month-on-month basis, the top few commodities, which contributed to inflation include tomatoes (48.36 percent), onions (39.07 percent), chicken (26.62 percent), eggs (23.81 percent), wheat (8.39 percent), wheat products (8.07 percent), sugar (4.58 percent),…

Read More

On Monday, on market close, PKR continued to gain value. It went up against USD in both interbank and open markets. It also gained value against Euro, AED and SR in open market. INTER-BANK MARKET RATES: In the interbank market, on market close, Pakistan Rupee gained 20 paisas for buying and 15 paisas for selling against USD over last Thursday’s rates closing at 160 and 160.10 respectively. OPEN MARKET RATES: In the open market, PKR gained 60 paisas for buying and 40 paisas for selling over last Thursday’s rates closing…

Read More

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided in principle to announce on Tuesday a major relief package of the electricity tariff for general, small and medium industries to encourage higher power consumption and manufacturing. As part of the Industrial Support Package (ISP), two separate meetings of as many cabinet committees decided to offer incremental power consumption in industrial and SME sector at Rs8 per unit and do away with peak and off-peak rates. A cabinet member told Dawn that a formal approval to both decisions would be granted by the federal cabinet which is…

Read More

The climate crisis has become a key issue not just for American voters in this US election — but people across the world. What the next president does or doesn’t do over the next four years will have a profound impact on the whether the world is able to avert the worst effects of climate change, scientists, policy makers and activists say. They say the world needs a US president who cares about climate change, for two main reasons. First, many nations take their cue from US policy, particularly on…

Read More