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An IMF review of the budget presents a fresh hurdle before the lender approves the release of pending bailout funds, which are crucial for Pakistan to resolve an acute balance of payments crisis. Pakistan has struggled to strike a deal with the IMF to release funds critical to stabilise the struggling economy. On Thursday, Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar reiterated that Pakistan has already taken all the agreed steps to unlock the funding. The $1.1 billion tranche is a part of a $6.5 billion bailout package the IMF approved in 2019, which is due to end in June, prior to the budget. The government has removed caps on the exchange rate, imposed taxes, raised energy tariffs, and scaled back subsidies in an attempt to unlock the IMF funding.

KARACHI, Pakistan, May 2 (Reuters) - Pakistan consumer prices, driven by food, rose a record 36.4% in the year to April, the highest inflation rate in South Asia and up from March's 35.4%, the statistics bureau said on Tuesday. Pakistan's rural areas recorded food inflation of 40.2%, the bureau told Reuters. Food inflation for both rural and urban areas reached 48.1%, the highest since FY16 when the bureau started recording the categories separately. "The higher reading was expected over the hyperinflation in the food segment," said Amreen Soorani, head of research at JS Capital, a Karachi based investment company. Persistently high inflation has resulted in major lifestyle and consumption changes, with a greater number of people seeking help.

ISLAMABAD, April 28 (Reuters) - Inflation-hit Pakistan on Friday approved a rise of up to 20% in retail prices of general medicines and 14% for essential ones, prompting immediate criticism from drug manufacturers who said the increases were too small. The government decision followed a months-long stand-off with importers and manufacturers, whose associations have been demanding an across-the-board 39% rise, warning that the industry could otherwise collapse. But the government had pushed back against the demands for higher medicine prices, fearing such a move would lose it support months before national general elections. The finance ministry said medicine prices could be reviewed again after three months if the Pakistani rupee appreciated, adding that "no increase under this category" would be granted in the next financial year. The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Association (PPMA) criticised the increase, which it said was way lower than it had expected.

[1/5] People look at handbags on display outside shops in a market, ahead of Eid al-Fitr celebrations in Karachi, Pakistan April 19, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar SoomroKARACHI, Pakistan, April 20 (Reuters) - Retail sales in Pakistan have witnessed a sharp drop compared to previous years in the run up to the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, retailers say, as shoppers feel the pinch of decades-high inflation. The lead up to Eid al-Fitr, expected to fall on Saturday in Pakistan to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan, traditionally sees the highest sales of the year. Asfandyar Farrukh, co-founder of CAP and managing director of Hub, a leather goods store, said that Eid shopping appears to have started sooner and peaked earlier, coinciding with salary pay days, and customers anticipating price increases. The sales drop adds to the slowing of Pakistan's $350 billion economy, which has struggled in recent months amidst tough stabilisation polices, including the central bank raising interest rates to a historic high of 21%.

[1/2] African elephant Noor Jahan, 17, who is unwell, rests on a sand pile, at a zoo in Karachi, Pakistan April 14, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro TPX IMAGES OF THE DAYKARACHI, Pakistan, April 14 (Reuters) - Noor Jehan, an elephant in Pakistan's Karachi Zoo, is critically ill after the 17-year-old fell in a pond on Thursday in a small enclosure. Right after the fall Four Paws, a global animal welfare organization, recommended lifting Noor Jehan with a crane, ropes and belts. The veterinarian from Egypt had then given Noor Jehan a strong chance of survival. Khalid Hashmi was removed as director of Karachi Zoo on April 8 over complaints of negligence.

KARACHI, Pakistan, April 13 (Reuters) - Pakistan's debt continues to be sustainable, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday, after the government reiterated it had completed all requirements to receive a critical bailout from the IMF. Pakistan's finance ministry on Thursday said IMF deputy managing director Antoinette Moniso Sayeh was confident of signing the staff level agreement very soon. Pakistan's government reiterated on Thursday it has completed all requirements to receive the critical bailout money from the fund following a meeting with Sayeh. "The finance minister also shared that all the international obligations have been addressed in time," the finance ministry said in a news release. On Wednesday, Pakistan's finance ministry release a statement following talks with the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Director Jihad Azour.

I'll never get over his death as long as I live," his father, Umer Zada, told Reuters. Zada said the distribution of aid should have been better organised, with police supervision of the hungry and desperate seeking help. "There has been a 50% reduction in donations this year, while there has been a 50% increase in people seeking help." The group's ambulances took away the injured and the bodies of Saad and the others killed in the Karachi crush. Like everyone, Zada is struggling with inflation but he also has to contend with grief and questions that torment him.

KARACHI, Pakistan, April 4 (Reuters) - Pakistan's central bank raised its key interest rate by 100 basis points to a record 21% on Tuesday, as the cash-strapped country stepped up its fight against soaring consumer prices. Investors polled by Reuters had expected an even-bigger rate hike of 200 basis point from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), which is facing on consumer price inflation that hit a record annual level of just over 35% in March. Worldwide growth in consumer prices has compounded high inflation in Pakistan caused by a weakening currency, energy tariff increases and elevated food prices due to Ramadan. The SBP has hiked the key rate by cumulatively by 1025 bps since January 2022. In early March, the bank raised its key rate by 300 basis points to 20%, exceeding market expectations, likely to meet a key requirement of the IMF for release of bailout funds.

Eighteen out of 20 economists and market watchers surveyed said the central bank would hike rates, with 12 of them predicting a 200 bps increase. Two poll participants saw the benchmark raised by 100 bps, while four forecast a 150 bps hike. Worldwide growth in consumer prices has compounded high inflation in Pakistan caused by a weakening currency, energy tariff increases and elevated food prices due to Ramadan. The latest consumer price-based inflation clocked a 31.5% rise on year in February, the highest in nearly 50 years. The State Bank of Pakistan has raised rates by a total 10.25% since January 2022.

KARACHI, Pakistan, March 30 (Reuters) - China is working on a request by Pakistan to roll over a $2-billion loan that matured last week, a top finance ministry official told Reuters. The rollover is critical for the South Asian nation, as its foreign exchange reserves have dipped to just four weeks worth of imports at a time when it is locked in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure bailout funds. The loan matured on March 23. The IMF funding is critical for Pakistan to unlock other external financing avenues, and the two have been negotiating since early February to resume $1.1 billion in funding held since November, part of a $6.5 billion bailout agreed in 2019. One of the lender's last remaining conditions for release of the tranche is securing an assurance on external financing to fund Pakistan's balance of payments.

Pakistan is no stranger to economic crises - this is its fifth IMF bailout since 1997 - but economists say the latest measures, which include higher taxes and fuel costs, are hurting educated professionals. "Unfortunately the poor in Pakistan are left with nothing to lose," said Abid Suleri, the Sustainable Development Policy Institute of Pakistan, an economic think tank. "Educated professionals... find their purchasing power and savings eroded, and daily consumption either unaffordable or out of reach." "It will be more difficult to buy sweets and gifts for Eid, which is a break from our family tradition." The economic turmoil is driving some professionals out of the country.

[1/2] Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, waves from the vehicle as he leaves from Lahore to appear before Islamabad High Court, in Lahore, Pakistan March 18, 2023. 'GOVT INTENDS TO ARREST ME'The court has previously issued arrest warrants for Khan in the case as he had failed to appear on previous hearings despite summons. On his assurance that he would appear on Saturday, the court granted Khan protection against arrest, but he said he feared the police and government planned to take him into custody. There were reports of fresh clashes between police and supporters of Khan and his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Lahore. (This story has been corrected to show Khan is to appear in court, not appearing in court, in the headline.

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