News

Growth shocks to render more jobless, warns ILO

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) in a new report on Monday warned that the Asia-Pacific region still lacks 22 million jobs in 2022, and this number is projected to increase to 26 million in 2023 given the headwinds to growth in the current geopolitical global and regional context. In its report, “Asia-Pacific Employment and Social Outlook 2022: Rethinking sectoral strategies for a hu

Builders inflate prices of flats

‘Apartmentarianism’ is the philosophy of real estate investors that is bolstered by the fact that 73 per cent of the apartment owners in Pakistan are not apartment dwellers. Around 75pc of apartment residents live in rental flats because of their low buying power. However, in reality, apartment living is not yet in vogue. The real asset is a high return on investment for developers backed by their

Banks’ income, assets flourish in 1HCY22

Banking in Pakistan flourished during the first half of the calendar year 2022; both assets and income noted a strong increase while the balance sheet of banks expanded by 16 per cent over the same period of last year. The State Bank issued a “mid-year performance review” (MYPR) of the banking sector for 2022 on Monday. The review covers the performance and soundness of the banking sector fo

Fintech eyes 20pc stake in logistics firm

Universal Network Systems Ltd (UNSL) — a logistics firm operating under the brand name of BlueEX — said on Monday an unnamed fintech has offered to buy a 20 per cent stake in the company. The transaction size would be around Rs300 million if the deal took place at the prevailing share price of Rs55 apiece. The company is currently valued at a little over Rs1.5 billion. Speaking to Dawn, UNSL

Govt decides to allow sugar export

After resisting for weeks, the government has finally made up its mind to allow the export of sugar to facilitate millers and sugarcane farmers in depleting old stocks and speed up fresh crushing. Informed sources told Dawn that a formal decision on the exact export quantities and the related mechanism would be taken at back-to-back meetings of the Sugar Advisory Board (SAB) and the Economic Co