By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The large-scale manufacturing sector contracted by 1.9 percent year-on-year during the first eight months of the 2024-25 fiscal year (July-February), driven by steep declines in food, chemicals, and construction-linked industries, provisional data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Tuesday.
By Staff Reporter
Fitch Ratings lifted Pakistan’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating to ‘B-’ from ‘CCC+’, with a Stable Outlook, signalling cautious hope for economic stabilisation via a $7 billion IMF Extended Fund Facility and $1.3 billion Resilience Facility.
By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The government has decided against lowering local petroleum prices despite a recent drop in global oil prices, opting instead to channel the savings into major infrastructure projects in Balochistan, the Prime Minister’s House said on Tuesday.
By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Global ratings agency Fitch on Tuesday upgraded Pakistan’s foreign currency credit rating to ‘B-’ from ‘CCC+’, a move signaling growing economic stability as the country slashes budget deficits and implementing structural reforms under a IMF bailout programme. The outlook is stable.
ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is intensifying pressure on Pakistan to tackle a Rs7 trillion tax shortfall and judicial inefficiencies, critical steps to shore up its shaky economy.
By Staff Reporter
A critical anti-tax evasion initiative in the tobacco sector remains stalled in the mountainous region of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) despite years of planning, multiple deadlines, and urgent warnings about the growth of illicit cigarette production costing the national exchequer over Rs 300 billion annually.
By Staff Reporter
A surge in smuggled and tax-evaded cigarettes is draining Pakistan’s national exchequer of an estimated Rs324 billion annually, according to a new survey, exposing critical gaps in enforcement and unintended consequences of aggressive tax hikes on legitimate tobacco products.
By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: The overseas workers sent home a record $4.1 billion in March 2025, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmad said Monday, driving the central bank to raise its full-year remittance and foreign reserve targets amid improving economic stability.
By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has granted Pakistan a four-month extension to finalise a transparency measure requiring senior bureaucrats to publicly disclose their assets, after the government warned that exposing officials’ financial details could heighten security and harassment risks.
By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will not retaliate against tariffs proposed by US President Donald Trump’s administration, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Monday, even as analysts warn the delayed levies threaten to destabilise the South Asian nation’s fragile export economy.
