Tue, 21-Oct-2025

Pakistan’s economy gains momentum in 2020/21: SBP

Banknotes coronavirus

KARACHI: The Pakistan economy has made an encouraging recovery during the last fiscal year but certain structural vulnerabilities still require the government’s attention, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reported in its third quarterly report issued on Friday. In the report titled, The State of Pakistan’s Economy for the fiscal year 2020/21, the central bank … Read more

World Bank and IMF support CBDCs at G20

World Bank

The IMF, the World Bank, and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have expressed support for central bank-backed digital currencies (CBDCs), believing that their adoption might promote global development.

 

They argued in a report released jointly by the three institutions on Friday that projects like the US digital currency will help global growth by reducing dependency on the costly and time-consuming transfer services now used for financial transactions around the world.

 

Indermit Gill, World Bank Group Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions, stated, “Faster, cheaper, more transparent and more inclusive cross-border payment services would deliver benefits for citizens, businesses, and economies worldwide.”

 

The G20 report also looked at the hazards of adopting digital currencies, emphasizing the importance of simple cross-border transactions. “could increase risks for runs on both local banking sectors and currencies.” Emerging markets and poor countries, according to Gill, are especially vulnerable.

 

With the usage of digital currencies, companies and banks will be able to communicate and exchange information more easily.

 

Several countries have taken steps to join the race to establish a CBDC, with China taking the lead. Ukraine just enacted a bill that elevates the country’s CBDC to the same level as fiat currency.

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Pakistan stocks plunge over 600 points on selling pressure

PSX

KARACHI: Massive selling pressure was witnessed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday where the market remained in the red zone throughout the day. An analyst at Pearl Securities said the bloodbath was seen due to the likely mutual funds redemption, amid year-end phenomenon. “Furthermore, a mix of negative flows also dominates the market sentiments, … Read more

Finance Minister answers the reason behind going to IMF

Finance Minister hints at "extraordinary" drop in flour prices in next few days

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin spoke about the major challenges faced by the PTI government Tarin further explained how the government tried to deal with these challenges with limited resources. The biggest difficulty, he said, “When the PTI government came to power, was the country’s current account deficit of $20 million”. In the past, growth could … Read more

Pakistan rejects IMF demand of Rs700 billion budgetary measures: Tarin

Pakistan rejects IMF demand of Rs700 billion budgetary measures: Tarin

KARACHI: Pakistan has rejected the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) demand of taking budgetary measures worth Rs700 billion, to avoid putting additional burden on the existing taxpayers, a government official said on Friday. In his speech at the Senate about the Federal Budget 2021/22, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said the Pakistan authorities had informed the IMF … Read more

Saudi Arabia agrees to extend oil facility to Pakistan worth $1.5 billion

IMF expects Saudi economy to grow 2.8% in 2021

KARACHI: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has agreed to restart providing oil aid to Pakistan worth at least $1.5 billion annually from July 2021, which analysts believe would provide the much-needed support to the current account, and help stabilise the rupee. The Saudi offer is less than half of the previous oil facility of $3.4 … Read more

Top economies called upon by IMF, WTO, WB and WHO for equal distribution of vaccines

equal distribution of vaccines

Geneva: On Tuesday, the heads of four major global organizations said that in order to bring the coronavirus under control, world leaders must make a “new commitment” to a more equal distribution of vaccines. Their joint concern is that the pandemic, which has already killed more than 3.5 million people globally, has been prolonged and … Read more

Govt Sets High Economic Growth Targets With IMF Consent

Govt Sets High Economic Growth Targets With IMF Consent

Apparently, in agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government is setting inflation, economic growth and fiscal and core deficit targets for the next financial year, following a change in the economic team and encouraging macroeconomic indicators. According to the report, a government team in a meeting of the parliamentary committee said that the … Read more

Pakistan witnesses strong growth despite hard IMF Programme: Shaukat Tarin

Finance Minister Vows To Make E-commerce More Sustainable Through Digitization

Pakistan witnessed a strong V-Shaped growth despite being in a hard-hitting International Monetary Fund (IMF) program, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin stated on Saturday. In a tweet here the minister stated that the IMF program was required by unsustainable current account shortage and falling foreign currency reserves, and a vicious Covid 19. … Read more

Economic Growth Rate Of Pakistan Projected At 3.94% In Current FY

PTI founder admits govt saved Pakistan from default

Pakistan’s economy performed better than expected on all major economic indicators during COVID-19, resulting in a growth rate of 3.94% in the current financial year as against minus 0.47% in the previous financial year. According to the report, the growth figures proved to be staggering as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had projected a … Read more

Pakistan in talks with IMF for easing tough conditions

Govt Sets High Economic Growth Targets With IMF Consent

Pakistan has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a cut in the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) collection target from Rs 5.9 trillion to Rs 5.5 trillion for the upcoming budget. According to the reports, the Pakistani authorities have cited the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic as a reason. The IMF had given … Read more

IMF Warns Pakistan Growth Rate Be Lopsided, Inflation Will Rise

IMF Warns Pakistan Growth Rate Be Lopsided, Inflation Will Rise

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that Pakistan’s growth rate will remain at 1.5 per cent this year, while inflation and unemployment will rise. In its latest report on the Pakistani economy, the IMF said the prospects for recovery were slim this fiscal year. According to the International Monetary Fund, the economy will grow … Read more

Bilawal To Challenge SBP Ordinance In Court

PML-N's Demand To Hand Over Polling Box To Army Was Beyond Comprehension: Bilawal

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the PPP will challenge the government’s move to hand over the SBP to IMF through an ordinance. Addressing a press conference in Jacobabad, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, “Imran Khan’s government is responsible for the economic crisis facing the people of Pakistan. “The elected Prime … Read more

IMF Releases $500m to Support Pakistan’s Economy: Sources

Govt Sets High Economic Growth Targets With IMF Consent

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released $500 million to support Pakistan’s economy. According to sources, this amount of money has been given to Pakistan by the IMF for the third instalment of the loan program. Pakistan has borrowed $6 billion from the IMF and Pakistan has so far received 1. 1.95 billion from the … Read more

IMF approves $500 million disbursement to Pakistan

IMF Pakistan

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a 500 million dollar disbursement to Pakistan. As per the details, IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Sayeh mentioned in a statement that  the latest payment brought total disbursements under the Extended Fund Facility to 2 billion dollars since the program was first approved in July 2019. She stated … Read more

Government to abolish Rs 140 billion income tax exemption for various sectors

IMF Pakistan

The federal government has decided to abolish Rs 140 billion income tax exemption for various sectors. As per the details, the government has decided to bring an ordinance to abolish income tax exemption on the condition of IMF. Sources said that the procedure for bringing the Presidential Ordinance has been completed. The Cabinet approved a … Read more

Pakistan Reaches Staff-Level Agreement With IMF

Govt Sets High Economic Growth Targets With IMF Consent

An agreement has been reached between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan which has paved the way for the release of a $500 million instalment to Pakistan. According to the IMF statement, Pakistan has assured of a structural reform program after which Pakistan’s debt program has been restored. The statement further said that the … Read more

Pakistan GDP growth rate projected at 1.5 % for current fiscal year

IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected GDP growth rate of Pakistan at 1.5 per cent for the current fiscal year 2020-21. According to the media reports, the projection of the international body was made after comparing the negative growth of 0.4 per cent for the fiscal year 2019-2020 that was declined due to the … Read more

Financial Blow: Iraq seeks emergency assistance from IMF

Iraq IMF

Suffering from severe financial crisis, the government of Iraq has requested emergency assistance from the International Monetary Fund and talks are ongoing between the parties. According to the media reports, Iraq finance minister is in talks with the IMF for a $6 billion loan package. He added that Iraq also planned other types of funding … Read more

SBP reserves increased from $188m to $13.29b

USD TO PKR

According to the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the foreign exchange reserves rose 1.43%, held by the central bank, on a weekly basis.

The foreign currency reserves on December 4 held by the SBP were recorded at $13,298.5 million, up to $188 million compared with $13,110.9 million in the last week.

According to the details provided by the central bank, SBP received $359 million from multilateral/ bilateral sources during the week ended December 4, 2020, including $307 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

“After accounting for external debt repayments, the SBP reserves increased by $188 million to $13,298.5 million,” it added.

The liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country stood at $20,402.4 million, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,103.9 million.

It should be mentioned here that on July 9, 2019, Pakistan received the first loan tranche from the IMF of $991.4 million which helped to increase the reserves.

In late December, the IMF released the second loan tranche of around $454 million.

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Pakistan Rejects Reports About Failure Of Negotiations With IMF

IMF Warns Pakistan Growth Rate Be Lopsided, Inflation Will Rise

Pakistan has strongly rejected the reports about the failure of negotiations with the International Monetary Funds (IMF). According to the details, the Ministry of Finance in a message on the social networking site has rejected the news of the failure of negotiations for the next instalment of the packaged loan from the IMF. The Ministry … Read more

IMF Predicts Pakistan’s economic growth rate likely to be one percent

IMF Pakistan

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that Pakistan’s economy has been badly affected during the Coronavirus epidemic, it predicted that Pakistan’s economic growth rate will likely be one percent in FY20-2021. The IMF has slashed Pakistan’s growth rate by one percent, while the government has projected a GDP growth rate of 2.1 percent for … Read more

IMF sounds brighter tone for world economy amid COVID-19

IMF

The Managing Director of the International Monetary (IMF) Fund Kristalina Georgieva has said that the world economy is rebounding “from the depths of this crisis. The Senior IMF official said the International Monetary Fund will go through this year’s global economic forecast that has been significantly weakened by the novel coronavirus lockdown measures after it … Read more

PM Imran Assigns Naveed Kamran Baloch for World Bank post

Naveed Kamran Baloch

Prime Minister Imran Khan has assigned Naveed Kamran Baloch as Executive Director (ED) to the World Bank (WB). According to the details, Imran Khan has granted approval of Baloch’s appointment for the ED WB position and he would be leaving the country for Washington on October 31, 2020, replacing Shahid Ashraf Tarar. The Economic Affairs … Read more

IMF wants Pak to decrease circular debt by increasing prices on utilities

IMF Pakistan

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked Pakistani authorities to decrease the circular debt and electricity losses by increasing the price for consumers. According to the details, in order to achieve the tax collection target set for the fiscal year the global lender has asked the Pakistani government to increase the prices of gas and electricity … Read more

IMF Predicts more than 7 percent shrink in Gulf Economy

IMF Pakistan

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will see their economies shrink by 7.6 percent this year. According to the details, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said six GCC nations are, with varying degrees, facing abrupt economic declines as the slowdown in business activity due to the … Read more

IMF Predicts Worse Contraction in Global Economy

IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted a worse contraction in the global economy due to the ongoing pandemic. According to the details, the chief economist of IMF Gita Gopinath in her recent statement, said financial crisis triggered by the pandemic was more global and playing out differently than past crises, with the services sector … Read more

Bilawal Bhutto blames Prime Minister over spread of coronavirus

Bilawal Bhutto

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the budget presented by the federal government is the budget of another country and not of Pakistan. According to details, Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari while addressing the National Assembly said that the priority of the government even today is to give money to the IMF while … Read more