New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) Pakistan’s fragile economy has received temporary relief after the United Arab Emirates rolled over $2 billion of maturing loans for one month at an interest rate of 6.5 per cent. The extension covers two separate $1 billion loans that matured in mid-January 2026. However, the short tenure of just one month highlights the continuing financial stress faced by Islamabad, as it negotiates for a longer rollover period of up to two years at a lower rate.The move underlines …
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Mumbai, Feb 12 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Digital Payments Index (DPI) rose to 516.76, as of September 2025, up from 493.22 in March 2025, according to an RBI statement issued on Thursday.The increase in the RBI-DPI was driven by significant growth in parameters such as payment performance and payment enablers across the country over the period, the apex bank said.The RBI has been publishing a composite RBI-DPI since January 1, 2021, with March 2018 as the base to capture the exten…
New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) A structural issue responsible for perpetuating Pakistan’s dependence on the IMF is its failure to control expenditure, which has spiralled, at both federal and provincial levels, via salary increases far exceeding inflation for the civil, judicial, and military bureaucracies alongside expanding vehicle fleets, luxury housing, plush offices, overseas junkets, and discretionary budgets, often without mandates, sunset clauses or performance tests, according to an article…
New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) Pakistan’s plan to embrace a dollar‑linked stablecoin through a partnership with US crypto firm World Liberty Financial could accelerate the country’s dollarisation and undermine its macroeconomic stability, a new report has said.The report in the Daily Mirror said that a dollar-pegged stablecoin embeds a preference for the dollar as store of value and medium of exchange encouraging households to hold it as a state-tolerated alternative and move away from Pakistani r…
New Delhi, Feb 9 (IANS) After conducting a comprehensive exercise to enhance key data relevance, accuracy and international comparability, the government is set to release a new series of GDP, CPI and IIP (based on the new base year) on February 27, February 12 and May 28, respectively, the Parliament was informed on Monday.Minister of State Rao Inderjit Singh told the Rajya Sabha that the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) decided on a comprehensive exercise for revisio…
New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) Suffering from a profound identity crisis, Pakistan has thrown tax burden onto a population that receives the public services of a medieval fiefdom, according to a new report.A report in Business Recorder reveals that Pakistan’s fiscal policy remains obsessed with squeezing the productive few to fund a “bloated, unproductive bureaucracy”. “We are not a welfare state; we lack the institutional nervous system, the documentation, and the moral contract to sustain one…
New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) As millions of young Pakistanis enter an economy that has struggled to expand, stalled by macroeconomic instability and policy uncertainty, the country faces “twin dangers” of domestic unrest and accelerating outward migration, a new report has warned.Pakistan must generate between 25 and 30 million jobs over the next decade — about 2.5 to 3 million every year.However, without a thriving private economy, job creation on the scale required is simply not possible, arg…
Washington, Feb 6 (IANS) China has lost its influence over two strategic ports in Panama this year, a report stated while highlighting what it said appears like a bad start to the year for the Chinese Communist Party in Latin America. “What’s more, the Cuban dictatorship began to crumble, and Latin America is generally slamming the door on buying military equipment from Beijing,” Arturo McFields, an exiled journalist and former Nicaraguan Ambassador to the Organisation of American States, wrot…
Mumbai, Feb 6 (IANS) Despite global uncertainties, India’s foreign exchange reserves surged by $14.361 billion in the week ended January 30, reaching an all-time high of $723.774 billion, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday. In the previous week, the reserves had increased by $8.053 billion. The increase in foreign exchange reserves is primarily attributed to a rise in gold prices.According to the Central Bank data, the value of gold reserves, a key component …
New Delhi, Feb 3 (IANS) Debt-ridden Pakistan’s recent request to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the rollover of $3 billion deposits reflects the heavy dependence of the country’s economy on borrowing from friendly countries and the IMF to stay afloat.This pattern of repeated rollovers and emergency funding from friendly states and the IMF has provided short-term breathing space but has also entrenched a fragile economic model that discourages domestic reform, distorts incentives, and per…