The currency has lost about 6% of its value against the dollar in the first three weeks of Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar’s tenure, as he faces economic challenges and IMF terms.
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s central bank received $1.2 billion from International Monetary Fund as the first tranche of a $3 billion bailout to stabilise the economy.
Saudi Arabia pledged the money and then waited for the aid package from the International Monetary Fund to go ahead before depositing it with the State Bank of Pakistan.
IMF executive board is scheduled to meet on 12 July to approve $3 billion SBA with Pakistan. But there are doubts whether this will stave off default, or just push issue to 2024.
Pakistan PM Shebhaz Sharif has said arrangement will help 'strengthen foreign exchange reserves, enable Pakistan to achieve economic stability & sustainable economic growth'.
Islamabad has taken a slew of policy measures since an IMF team arrived in Pakistan earlier this year, including a revised 2023-24 budget last week to meet the lender's demands.
The meeting on the sidelines of the Global Financing Summit in Paris came with about a week left before the IMF's Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreed in 2019 expires on 30 June.
The budget is being closely watched by the International Monetary Fund as the South Asian country seeks further bailout money during an economic and balance of payments crisis.
The country is reeling from an economic crisis with inflation surging to 37.97% in May, posting a record for the second consecutive month and also the highest in South Asia.
For an industry globally classified as hazardous, protections such as health insurance and a provident fund for workers are necessities. In Sivakasi, they remain elusive.
The industry forecasts exports are set to grow 16% in 2025-26, boosted by surplus domestic production and a drive to push into 26 underserved global markets with strong potential.
Indigenisation level will progressively increase up to 60 percent with key sub-assemblies, electronics and mechanical parts being manufactured locally.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
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