News

Regional exports swell over 16pc

The first five months of the current fiscal year witnessed a double-digit growth of 16.3 per cent in exports to nine regional countries, mainly driven by an increase in shipments to China, data compiled by the State Bank of Pakistan showed on Monday. The country’s exports to Afghanistan, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Iran, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives rose to $1.855 billion in July-Nov

Cotton production crosses 8m bales after three years

Cotton arrivals crossed eight million bales on Dec 15, showing an increase of 63 per cent over and above the total production of the last crop year, reveals the fortnightly data released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) on Monday. A total of 8.02 million bales of cotton had been ginned across the country by Dec 15 compared to 4.90m bales in the same period last year. The dat

Loan inflows remain below quarter of projection

Despite the International Monetary Fund (IMF) onboard, Pakistan received about $4.285 billion in foreign loans, less than one-fourth of the annual budget estimate in the wake of poor credit rating and adverse conditions in the global financial markets. In its monthly report on Foreign Economic Assistance (FEA), the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) on Monday said the country received just $4.285b

Current account turns positive on back of falling imports

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday reported the first current account surplus for the ongoing fiscal year in November. Despite low inflows and higher outflows for debt servicing, the current account was in surplus by $9 million in November compared to a deficit of $157m noted in the same month last year. However, the current account deficit (CAD) narrowed by almost 63pc to $1.16 bill

Is the stock market in a bubble?

The KSE-100 index, which is the benchmark index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), has increased by roughly 18,000 points or 37 per cent over the last 10 weeks. The earlier high in the range of 52,000 points that was set in 2017 has been far exceeded by the recent run-up in prices. The performance of the KSE-100 index had been lacklustre for the last five years as it was not able to exceed its