April, 27(E. A Report) — State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) foreign exchange reserves increased by $30 million, clocking in at $4.46 billion as of April 21, data released on Thursday showed.Number still stands at a critical level of around a month of import cover whereas total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $10.02 billion in addition of net foreign reserves held by commercial banks clocked in at $5.56 billion. “During the week ended on April 20, 2023, SBP reserves increased by $30 million to $4,462.8 million,” said a statement from SBP.Last week, SBP’s reserves increased by $394 million.Finance Minister Ishaq Dar notified earlier receipt of $300 million from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (IC...
April 28, 2023 at 8:41 am | Economic Affairs
16th March, 2023Islamabad(EA Report)Federal Minister for Commerce, Syed Naveed Qamar chaired the second meeting of the Committee on Export Enhancement. The Minister assured the business community of the full support of the Government of Pakistan in resolving their issues. He apprised the participants that the Ministry of Commerce is fully cognisant of the liquidity issues being faced by exporters and he has personally took up the matter with State Bank of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue and Ministry of Finance to facilitate exporters in meeting their liquidity requirements through low cost financing and speedy refunds of duty drawback and sales tax of the exporters. The Minister also took notice of the difficulties being faced b...
March 16, 2023 at 11:58 pm | Economic Affairs
IMF shares prerequisites list asking implementation in two to three weeks, which could pave way for releasing of a $1 billion tranche besides a grant of Rs. 340 billion adjuster because of floods By Ghulam Haider The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has handed over Pakistan a list of to-do list them in the next three weeks if they want to revive the stalled loan programme of $1 billion under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), which is expected to provide a much-needed breather to the sagging economy. Telling Islamabad that that the time has come to take “all required actions,” the IMF has given Pakistani authorities a timeframe of two to three weeks for implementing all required actions, which will pave the way for a staff-lev...
December 27, 2022 at 3:16 pm | Economic Affairs
THE recent ATM card skimming incident is a wake-up call for banks in Pakistan to ensure their customer’s data security against all possible threats. The central bank, on its part, has reminded banks of their responsibility to implement all regulations of Payments Card Security (PCS) that it introduced back in June 2016. Habib Bank Ltd, the bank whose depositors’ ATM cards were skimmed, has started compensating the affected customers. And the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is now investigating the matter. Customer data security is one of the biggest challenges that banks the world over face. And all central banks continue to strengthen regulations aimed at preventing a security breach. But Pakistani banks have now become ...
December 12, 2017 at 2:36 pm | News Desk
There is no doubt that relationship matters in career advancement. Especially, in a country like Pakistan, it become difficult for professionals to achieve high rank positions if they don’t have close references, relations or friendships with people at higher levels. It is called nepotism. Nepotism and violation of merit has destroyed our institutions as incapable persons are being appointed on sensitive positions which also involve budgetary authority. National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) is one institution has been suffering due to the manse of nepotism and violation of merit. The State Bank of Pakistan recent inspection report mentioned a number of appointments at senior position in NBP in violation of rules and merit. A few examples are...
February 4, 2015 at 6:09 pm | News Desk
Storming IPOs at stock exchanges KARACHI: Initial public offerings are back in the headlines and that too with a bang. Stock exchanges round the globe have been tied up with overflowing number of public listings. Some global business groups have even regarded 2014 as the busiest year for book runners, financial advisors and lead managers since 1999-2000 era of the dot-com bubble. Even the record breaking IPO of AliBaba-–the ecommerce titan of the East-–has been marked as the largest ever stock market floatation. Not to omit the interesting case of Pakistan. The initial and secondary public offerings since last year including Engro Fertilizers, Avanceon, Hascol Petroleum, Lalpir, Pakistan International Bulk Terminal, Unite Bank Limi...
October 5, 2014 at 11:34 am | News Desk
China to invest $50bn in uplift projects by 2017 China intends to invest as many as $50 billion by 2017 in various sectors of Pakistan’s economy, particularly in energy sector to help the country overcome power crisis and help sustainable economic growth, President Pak-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry Shah Faisal Afridi said. China has planned to replicate the model of Shanghai Free Trade Zone (SFTZ) by investing $50 billion into a number of projects including coal, solar and wind energy till 2017 under Early Harvest Programme,” Faisal said. These projects would enable Gawadar to create a nexus between Pakistan, Iran, China and Central Asian States that would ultimately generate billions of dollars in revenues along wit...
September 16, 2014 at 9:46 pm | News Desk
IMF releases $555.6 million third tranche to Pakistan WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund approved on March 24 a fresh aid disbursement to Pakistan after the country passed the second review of its ongoing $6.8 billion support program. The IMF immediately freed $555.6 million for the country, with the money helping the government bridge financing gaps while it undertakes fiscal reforms required under the program. It was the third tranche of the three-year program, approved in September 2013, which required the government to implement strict economic reforms, particularly in its troubled energy sector and tax system. The review followed the resignation at the end of January of the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Y...
April 3, 2014 at 10:51 am | News Desk
Sajid Gondal Certainly, Pakistan is not an Asian tiger, neither is it on the path to become a tiger, though the country has a tremendous potential for economic growth. Terrorism is not the only one, but a major hurdle on its way for development and prosperity. It creates uncertainty, reduces confidence and increases risk perception, leading to lower investment and weak economic growth. Unfortunately, the current government led by PML N, the previous PPPP rule and the army led regime failed to tackle the growing menace and let it spread like a smoke across Pakistan. Other factors hampering economic growth are shortfall in means of energy i.e. electricity, gas and oil, corruption and shortage of skilled human resource. Though, the r...
February 11, 2014 at 12:41 pm | News Desk
News in Brief SBP revises Prudential Regulations for agri financing The State Bank of Pakistan has issued revised Prudential Regulations (PRs) for agriculture financing. The revised instructions call upon banks to develop robust and market-oriented policies and practices to promote enhanced flow of credit to the agriculture sector without compromising financial stability and banks’ risk management. The revised regulations, among other areas, make it mandatory for banks to formulate comprehensive agriculture financing policies covering broad areas of strategic importance, including loan administration, disbursement and monitoring mechanisms, set-up and maintenance of dedicated agriculture, finance departments equipped with qualif...
February 8, 2014 at 10:28 pm | News Desk