Day: March 1, 2026

ISLAMABAD: Acting South Africa High Commissioner Rudolph Pierre Jordaan has said that South Africa is a land of infinite possibilities and one of Pakistan’s largest trading partners in Africa, offering an investor-friendly environment supported by progressive policies and a young, energetic workforce. He expressed these views while addressing an interactive session at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI). Highlighting the historic and cordial relations between Pakistan and South Africa since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1994, the envoy underscored the vast potential for expanding bilateral trade and…

BERLIN: The German government has placed the German units of Russia’s Rosneft under a trusteeship, the economy ministry said on Saturday, as Berlin seeks to establish long-term control over the German assets of the Russian oil group. The assets, which include a stake in the PCK Schwedt refinery, were placed in the German government’s trusteeship in 2022 after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine shook Germany’s decades-long energy ties with Russia. However, that trusteeship has to be renewed every six months on grounds of preserving energy security, creating uncertainty mainly over the…

LAHORE: The Chainstore Association of Pakistan (CAP) has called for a careful examination of claims that over 80-90% of tier-1 retail branches are disconnected from the Point of Sale (POS) systems. “The lists available on the FBR website appear to be auto generated around 8:00 am, when the overwhelming majority of physical retail outlets are closed and their POS systems are naturally offline, apart from their e-commerce stores. This creates a distorted snapshot of connectivity status,” the association said in a statement on Saturday. More importantly, it said, the financial…

ISLAMABAD: An amount of Rs221 billion has been disbursed Under the Prime Minister’s Youth Business & Agriculture Loan Scheme while the banking sector has provided overall SME financing of Rs882.4 billion to 302,922 borrowers. The 15th meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Development was held under the chairmanship of Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Industries and Production Haroon Akhtar Khan. The meeting was attended by Ministry of Industries and Production Secretary Saif Anjum, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) CEO,…

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on Saturday ordered all stakeholders to make certain and ensure an adequate stock of petroleum products amid the raging conflict in the Middle East unleashed by attacks of Israel and the United States on Iran that prompted retaliatory strikes. Earlier in the day, the US and Israel jointly launched strikes on Iran that pushed the Middle East into renewed military confrontation and further dimmed hopes for a diplomatic solution to the West’s long-standing effort to denuclearise Iran, despite Tehran’s repeated assertions that it will not pursue nuclear…

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) came under sustained pressure during the outgoing week, shedding 2.9%, or nearly 5,110 points, to close at 168,062 amid geopolitical tensions, cross-border security concerns and cautious investor sentiment. The decline coincided with the arrival of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission for the third review of Pakistan’s $7 billion Extended Fund Facility and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility assessment, keeping market participants focused on external financing prospects and macro-stability signals. On a day-on-day basis, the PSX commenced the week on a distinctly negative note,…

LONDON/MOSCOW: OPEC+ may consider a larger-than-planned output increase of 411,000 barrels per day at a meeting on Sunday, two sources close to the talks said, after Saudi Arabia and the UAE raised exports in anticipation of possible disruption to oil markets from US-Israeli strikes on Iran carried out on Saturday. Eight members of OPEC+, which groups the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies — Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria and Oman — were already scheduled to meet on Sunday at 1100 GMT. Despite expectations that oversupply…

The government on Saturday raised the prices of petrol by Rs8 per litre and high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs 5.16 per litre for the next fortnight. According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Petroleum, the new price of petrol has been set at Rs 266.17 per litre after the increase. Meanwhile, HSD has risen to Rs 280.86 per litre. The revised prices will remain in effect from March 1 to March 15. Read More: OGRA orders refineries to ensure adequate oil reserves due to Middle East situation High-speed diesel is…

ISLAMABAD: In scorching criticism of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s highly trumpeted Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment (GCDA), an independent think tank has described the report as “analytically strong” but said it compromised on politically sensitive reforms and institutional independence. The think tank’s report revealed that the IMF compromised on the independence of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Auditor General of Pakistan and oversight of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC). The Global Think Tank Network (GTTN) also said that 73% of fiscal consolidation under the IMF programme was…