Investors head into a busy week for economic data watching if leadership in the US stock market could be moving away from defensive equity areas that indicates greater appetite for risk. While the benchmark S&P 500 index is down 3.7% in 2025, with stocks jolted by concerns about economic damage from President Donald Trump's tariffs, the consumer staples and utilities' sectors, typically seen as
Increasing business and trade relations with the UK can provide Pakistan and its industries an alternative destination to achieve the desired goals of socio-economic prosperity, qualitative industrialisation and exports, in which the Pakistani businessmen and investors settled in the UK can play an important role. Rising cooperation in health, education, hospitality, culture, IT, human resource
In the ongoing escalated environment between India and Pakistan, the talk of free trade across borders can be termed unrealistic, anti-nationalist or even unpatriotic. In this article, I will argue that trade openness, trade connectivity and trade facilitation can serve as a deterrence against war, conflict and violence. Openness comes with no or low tariffs; connectivity requires reliable phys
The industrial sector of Pakistan, once the backbone of the nation's economy, represents untapped potential that could drive economic growth, create jobs and enhance global competitiveness. It is high time to focus on it. With strategic interventions focused on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the light engineering sector and agro-industrial opportunities, Pakistan can optimise its industri
We are all aware of the short-term economic relief: a 60-year low inflation rate, remittances nearing $4 billion in a month, a current account surplus of nearly $1 billion and global oil prices dropping sharply from the low $80s to the $60s per barrel. We're also anticipating almost certain inflows of $2 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including climate-linked funding, a sus