PAKISTAN’S economy faces a severe multidimensional crisis amid a gloomy and uncertain outlook. A recent State Bank report on the state of the economy during the first half of the present fiscal year admits that macroeconomic fundamentals are deteriorating, but it understates the severity of the painful crisis the country and its people have been contending with for the last one year — just as F
Tycoons, aware of challenges and Prime Minister Shehbaz’s government’s weakness, are not hopeful. The volatile market is desperate for positive signals. The people, however, expected relief in an election-year budget. To avoid higher levies on their income/profit, bankers, brokers and barons are lobbying hard, approaching heavyweights in the power corridors. The currency dealers, commodity trad
With a positive growth rate, Pakistan’s economy has somehow managed to skirt a recession during the ongoing fiscal year, even if the GDP growth has fallen flat to less than 0.3 per cent — the slowest increase in domestic output in four years — from 6.1pc a year ago. Yet it also underlines that the economy is suffering long-term effects from the crises caused by the balance of payments vulnerabi
Maritime Affairs Minister Faisal Sabzwari has said an agreement for a $500 million investment from the Gulf countries is being finalised. In this regard, an intergovernmental agreement policy would be submitted to the law ministry on Monday, which if approved, would pave the way for direct foreign investment as per the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Addressing the m
The game of chickens in the political arena can lead to economic malaise; the United States is on the verge of it. The deadlock between President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy has amplified the severity of the question, “Is the US really going towards a default? This question, even its imagination, is enough to send chills down the spine, for the aftermaths of the ‘unlikely’ US default is going