{"id":1928811,"date":"2023-05-11T09:56:55","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T13:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-pakistan-point-of-sale-payments-slump-nearly-50-after-protest-violence\/"},"modified":"2023-05-11T10:02:17","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T14:02:17","slug":"exclusive-pakistan-point-of-sale-payments-slump-nearly-50-after-protest-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-pakistan-point-of-sale-payments-slump-nearly-50-after-protest-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan&#8217;s point-of-sale payments drop by 50% due to protest violence."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexclusive-pakistan-point-of-sale-payments-slump-nearly-50-after-protest-violence%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1928811&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Protests in Pakistan Cause Nearly 50% Drop in Digital Payments<\/h2>\n<h3>By Ariba Shahid<\/h3>\n<p>Point-of-sale transactions routed through Pakistan\u2019s main <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fed-inches-closer-to-developing-central-bank-digital-currency\/\" title=\"Fed Inches Closer to Developing Central Bank Digital Currency\">digital payments<\/a> system fell by nearly 50% the day after former Prime Minister Imran Khan\u2019s arrest ignited countrywide protests and prompted authorities to shut down mobile internet services, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/south-korea-logs-second-highest-daily-tally-of-covid-cases-amid-prison-church-outbreaks\/\" title=\"South Korea logs second-highest daily tally of COVID cases amid prison, church outbreaks\">data showed<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The violent protests that followed Khan\u2019s arrest on Tuesday by the country\u2019s anti-graft agency have hit commercial activity in Pakistan hard. Many major roads and businesses have also remained shut, mainly in the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistan\u2019s second-largest city.<\/p>\n<h3>Impact on Digital Payments<\/h3>\n<p>Data shared with Reuters by 1LINK on its point-of-sale (POS) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-pakistan-point-of-sale-payments-slump-nearly-50-after-protest-violence\/\" title=\"Pakistan's point-of-sale payments drop by 50% due to protest violence.\">machines showed international payment card transactions<\/a> were down on Wednesday by 45% in volume, from a daily average of 127,000 during the week of May 1 to 7 to approximately 68,000 on May 10. The daily value of transactions using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russia-calls-for-integrating-brics-payment-system\/\" title=\"Russia Calls for Integrating BRICS Payment System\">international payment cards<\/a> was down 46%, from 606 million rupees ($2.14 million) to 330 million rupees ($1.16 million) on May 10.<\/p>\n<p>Transactions on Pakistan\u2019s only domestic payment scheme, PayPak, were down 52% in volume to 18,000 transactions on Wednesday, and 56% down in value to roughly 62 million rupees ($218,775).<\/p>\n<p>1LINK is Pakistan\u2019s major facilitator of POS digital payment transactions for international platforms such as Visa and Mastercard.<\/p>\n<h3>Reasons for the Slump<\/h3>\n<p>The reason for the slump was primarily the mobile broadband suspension, in addition to lower footfall at the limited number of stores opened due to the political turmoil, payments system operator 1LINK told Reuters.<\/p>\n<h3>Impact on the Market<\/h3>\n<p>Cash transactions still dominate Pakistan\u2019s commercial dealings, with much of the market undocumented, but digital payments have been growing fast in the country of 220 million. Many retailers and industrialists across Pakistan have also said their activities had ground to a halt since the protests started on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>More than 1,600 people have been arrested while five have been killed and hundreds injured in riots, including more than 160 policemen.<\/p>\n<p>The suspension of mobile broadband and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-new-acting-attorney-general-jeff-rosen-recently-wrote-an-essay-on-foreign-influence-in-us-elections-this-tells-us-a-little-about-his-knowledge-of-whats-going-on-today\/\" title=\"The New Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen Recently Wrote an Essay on Foreign Influence in US Elections \u2013 This Tells Us A Little About His Knowledge of What\u2019s Going On Today\">social media platforms<\/a> has cost nearly $100 million so far, according to Simon Migliano, Head of Research at Top10VPN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ariba Shahid KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) \u2013 Point-of-sale transactions routed through Pakistan\u2019s main digital payments system fell by nearly 50% the day after former Prime Minister Imran Khan\u2019s arrest ignited countrywide protests and prompted authorities to shut down mobile internet services, data showed on Thursday. Advertisement The reason for the slump was primarily the mobile<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":1928812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[542],"tags":[7405,5053,26461,5398,26459,4542,3699],"class_list":["post-1928811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oann","tag-7405","tag-drop","tag-pakistans","tag-payments","tag-point-of-sale","tag-protest","tag-violence"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1928812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}