Photo: Asif HASSAN / AFPSource: AFPAn IMF team left Pakistan on Friday after crisis talks with the government failed to deliver a deal on financial aid that would help the South Asian country avert economic collapse. He said petrol prices would rise by roughly four percent and additional taxes would be imposed, without giving further details. Authorities also hiked petrol prices by 16 percent. "This situation has triggered fears the construction industry will close down very soon, plunging thousands of labourers into unemployment," Syed Ashfaq Hussain, head of the Constructors Association of Pakistan, told AFP. Pakistan has brokered and broken more than a dozen IMF deals in recent decades as parties renege on agreements that hurt their political survival.

Source: Daily Nation February 10, 2023 22:30 UTC