It took a lot of high taxes and the removal of a bunch of subsidies, but Pakistan managed to secure $7bn from the IMF. As usual, the prime minister expressed the idle hope that this would be the last time we take the begging bowl to the lender of the last resort. Bulls in the lead The benchmark KSE-100 Index provided a gain of 75pc from January 01, 2024, till December 20, 2024, including div
The year ahead holds cautious optimism for Pakistan’s economy, contingent on the absence of major internal or external shocks. The recovery remains fragile, with citizens and businesses stretched to their limits. Any policy missteps or an escalation in global conflicts affecting commodity prices, oil markets, or trade routes could swiftly erode the hard-earned gains of 2024. Major global develo
A power policy is effectively an industrial policy. To unlock growth, it remains critical that an export-oriented industrial policy that is adequately supported by an efficient, market-oriented power regime is shaped. Over the next 12 months, to stimulate sustainable growth, the current power infrastructure must be operated efficiently and with market-oriented pricing rather than arbitrary cost
Stakeholders in the auto sector, who introduced both locally assembled and imported pure electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), must be excited now after getting a good response from customers from the elite class. In 2025, the upper class may see many more options with the entry of new locally assembled HEVs from Japanese and Korean assembler
As finance remains modest and climate-induced disasters wreak havoc across the globe, Pakistan, like the rest of the Global South, struggles to stay afloat, making do with whatever scant resources it has to take on mitigation and adaptation projects. Despite the urgency and severity of climate disasters, progress on climate action moved at a snail’s pace at the national and global levels. The f