Trading on the stock exchange stayed range-bound on Monday even though the Financial Action Task Force announced that it took Pakistan off its grey list. Arif Habib Ltd said the stock market was unable to capitalise on the positive trigger because of the political upheaval, which kept investors at bay. The mainboard shares attracted reasonable volumes but the top volume leaders were mostly t
FINANCE Minister Ishaq Dar seems to have run out of steam ever since he returned from Washington. His aggressive approach towards the economy and the exchange rate is absent. He is no longer talking about bringing the dollar down to below Rs200, and the “befitting response” promised to Moody’s after it downgraded Pakistan’s rating, has yet to materialise. All of this only suggests that the e
Is “Daronomics” or economic policies followed by our Finance Minister Ishaq Dar good or bad for our economy? Most commentators give a “yes” or “no” answer. However, this response is generally not based on objective criteria but on political partiality. This article presents a four-year comparison of three key economic indicators during the three previous governments. It also suggests the way forwa
The removal of Pakistan from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will boost the economy by attracting foreign direct investment as well as address the liquidity issues faced by Islamabad, said the business community on Sunday. As it hailed the decision of the terror financing watchdog, business leaders said the FATF exit will restore the confidence of international financial
The government has dismissed an IT industry’s demand for waiving a ‘negligible’ tax on its services to support the sector’s faltering exports but agreed to provide maximum facilitation, including exemption from audit by the tax authorities. Presiding over a meeting of the IT sector on Sunday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar observed that the effective tax rate on the sector was about 0.25 per cent,