Despite having little in common, even our political parties could agree on one thing: Pakistan’s economic situation was dire in 2023. The year saw Pakistan go through a long and rocky road to finding some semblance of economic stability — if it can even be called that — while weathering political and social turmoil. Pakistanis also experienced a double whammy this year: the one-two punches of the
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has exceeded its December target by Rs7 billion due to the timely clearance of liquefied natural gas shipments as well as impressive domestic sales tax collection aided by historic inflation. The revenue collection in December stood at Rs982bn against a projected target of Rs975bn. The revenue collection increased by 34pc when compared with Rs732bn over the co
The rupee-dollar exchange rate is expected to come under pressure due to higher debt repayments in the first quarter of calendar year 2024, said bankers and analysts. “With the completion of the nine-month $3bn Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF in March 2024, the dollar may reverse its downward trajectory due to higher debt servicing and likely fall in foreign exchange reserves amid slow inflow
EVERY year, the finance industry, both in Pakistan and elsewhere, races to make strategy and outlook documents about how the economy will shape up. It’s a ritual — one that takes up our social media feed and dominates media consumption even if the reality turns out to be starkly different. Maybe that’s the adult version of pretending to have a Palantir, but who among us can claim not to have indul
OVER time, the country’s socio-economic progress has generated and nurtured pluralism that has unfortunately found expression in political polarisation for want of required efforts to seek unity in diversity that can be forged by widely sharing rights, responsibilities and prosperity. On a positive note, the socio-economic progress has unleashed a (assertive) middle class whose presence can onl