KARACHI: Pakistan’s central bank faces one of its more unusual policy meetings in recent memory on Monday, convening its Monetary Policy Committee just hours after the United States and Iran announced a peace deal that dramatically altered the geopolitical backdrop that had driven the South Asian nation’s first interest-rate increase in nearly three years.
Economy
Finance minister Aurangzeb says budget marks shift from stability to export-led growth
ISLAMABAD: Finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Saturday mounted a vigorous defence of his Rs18.77 trillion federal budget for fiscal year 2026-27, saying the government had exhausted the fiscal space available to it in pursuing an ambitious pivot from economic stabilisation toward export-driven growth.
Petrol prices cut for fifth consecutive week
ISLAMABAD: The government has reduced the price of petrol by Rs4 per litre and high-speed diesel by Rs2 per litre, with the new rates taking effect from Saturday.
President Zardari clears final legal hurdle for PIA privatization
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday approved the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) (Repeal) Bill, 2026, removing the last legal obstacle to the transfer of the national carrier’s assets, liabilities and management control to a private consortium.
Pakistan budget: Stability preserved, growth deferred
ISLAMABAD: Finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb presented a Rs18.77 trillion federal budget on Friday that raises defence spending by almost a fifth, set an ambitious revenue target and offers modest tax relief to the salaried middle class — all while leaving the country’s deeper structural failings largely untouched.
Pakistan’s economy hits record size but misses growth target as Middle East conflict bites
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s economy expanded at its fastest pace in four years in fiscal 2026, hitting a record nominal size of $452 billion, yet fell short of the government’s own growth target as a confluence of floods, US tariff uncertainty and an escalating Middle East conflict weighed on output in the second half of the year.
Islamabad locks in June 12 budget date after three delays, coalition wrangling
ISLAMABAD: The Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb will present the federal budget for fiscal year 2026–27 to the National Assembly on Friday, capping weeks of political horse-trading that saw the date shift three times and exposed deep fissures between the federal government and its provincial partners over the division of national revenues.
Pakistan extends austerity drive to June 30, eases corner store hours
ISLAMABAD: The government extended its austerity and fuel conservation program by nearly three weeks on Wednesday, pushing the expiry date to June 30 and granting small grocery and neighbourhood convenience stores an extra hour of trading time each day, in the latest adjustment to a belt-tightening drive that has reshaped the country’s commercial calendar since March.
Pakistan’s $4.5 billion Balochistan refinery bets on deep-conversion technology to cut import bill
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is moving to establish its first deep-conversion greenfield refinery, a $4.5 billion project in the coastal industrial district of Hub that its developers say could reshape the country’s energy import profile and anchor a broader petrochemical buildout along its southwestern coast.
Pakistan remittances hit record $4.3 billion in May, setting up historic annual total
KARACHI: Pakistan received a record $4.3 billion in workers’ remittances in May, the State Bank of Pakistan said Wednesday, driven by surging inflows from the Gulf states and the United Kingdom that have put the country on course for an unprecedented full-year total as it navigates a delicate IMF-backed stabilization program.