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Pakistan malls to close early

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Pakistan’s government has ordered shopping centres and markets to close early every day as the country faces an economic crisis.

Defence minister Khawaja Asif says the measures will save the South Asian nation around 62bn Pakistani rupees ($274.3m; £228.9m).

Pakistan generates most of its power using imported fossil fuels.

Global energy prices jumped last year, putting further pressure on the country’s already dwindling finances.

To pay for those energy imports the country needs foreign currency, especially US dollars.

The Pakistan government had $11.7bn of foreign currencies available last month after its reserves fell by about 50% last year.

That is only enough to cover around one month’s worth of all the country’s imports, most of which is energy.

(BBC News)

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