An energy starved country can never be a prosperous country. The availability of affordable energy is a cornerstone of any sustainable industrialisation and economic growth model. One would be hard-pressed to find any economies that were able to escape the low growth and poverty trap without access to affordable energy. Pakistan imports more than $15 billion of energy, making up between one-
During the last fiscal year, the government’s borrowings for budgetary support had almost doubled to Rs7.48 trillion from Rs3.75tr a year ago, according to the latest statistics released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). Last year, the government kept borrowing excessively, chiefly to service old domestic debt and not to spend on the country’s development. During this fiscal year, we may see
The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has expressed serious concerns over the country’s deteriorating financial affairs, which have resulted in less than 4 per cent of the over Rs38.67 trillion budget being available for socio-economic services. Besides, around 93pc of supplementary grants, worth over Rs8tr, are not approved by the parliament and remain unspent, representing a loss of public resou
Equity investors remained in the bullish mind of the frame on Thursday, indulging in cherry-picking, as slashing of yields on treasury bills (T-bills) and falling Kibor aided the benchmark index to extend its overnight rally. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said stocks maintained a bullish tone after the government slashed returns on various tenors of T-bills by up to 148bps, boosting e
Several banks are offering new financing to businesses at rates below the Karachi Inter-Bank Offered Rate (KIBOR), as the benchmark six-month KIBORrepresenting the interest rate at which banks lend to each otherdropped by 63 basis points, reaching a 19-month low of 17.94% on Thursday. Speaking to The Express Tribune, Saad Hanif, Head of Research at Ismail Iqbal Securities, explained that the