News

SBP reserves inch up to $16.18b

Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) posted a modest increase during the week ended February 6, 2026, according to data released on Thursday. The SBP's FX reserves rose by $21 million on a weekly basis to $16.18 billion. Meanwhile, the country's total liquid foreign reserves stood at $21.37 billion. Of this, the net foreign reserves held by commercial ba

Risk-averse capital drives hybrid deals

Pakistan's startup ecosystem, once a headline-grabbing post-Covid-19 success story that attracted aggressive venture capital chasing growth and buzzworthy "disruption," is now entering a more cautious and structurally different phase. With investors increasingly prioritising risk-adjusted returns and shifting capital towards safer assets such as gold, the funding landscape is undergoing a trans

Debt risks keep economy vulnerable

The fragile external financing system of Pakistan is one of the main reasons for the weak economic structure of the country, as heavy reliance on foreign loans continues to expose the economy to sudden shocks, business leaders and economists said. They added that the external debt profile remains tilted towards short-term borrowing, leaving little room for policy mistakes. "The government must

Asian shares step back from record as tech jitters return, bonds rally

Asian shares retreated from record highs on Friday as worries about shrinking margins in the tech sector hit the likes of Apple, driving investors into safe-haven bonds ahead of key US inflation data. Overnight on Wall Street, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled 2% after Cisco Systems posted quarterly adjusted gross margin below estimates as costs of memory chips surged. That drove it

Digital push: Ministry proposes two major initiatives

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has proposed two major technology initiatives set to launch in 2026 — a USD1 billion National AI Ecosystem Development Program (NAIEDP) and a Rs70 billion Pakistan Digital Infrastructure Connectivity Plan including mobile broadband, fiberization and regional corridor — signalling an ambitious push to transform the country’s digital lands