Finance & Market

  Islamic funds have actually provided a window to a number of individuals, who were previously reluctant to invest because of their religious beliefs. The Islamic funds constitute 12 percent of the overall fund management in Pakistan. The country currently has the total assets worth Rs58 billion under management of Islamic mutual funds. Islamic funds industry is still at its initial stage. Presently, the country has all types of funds …

  One of the conditions for initiating process of ‘Liberalization, Deregulation and Privatization’ in early nineties was creation Regulatory Authorities in the respective sectors. The objective behind initiating this process was to confine role of the government to be the facilitators and pull it out of managing business. Creation of regulatory authorities was also one of the requirements of the multilateral lenders for the protection of all the stakeholders, particularly. …

  Worldwide, governments transfer trillions in cash for salaries, pensions and welfare payments to persons, Pakistan is no exemption. Automating government to Person (G2P) presents tremendous merits. Firstly, the government can save great sums of amount. Secondly, recipients will have advantage from rapid payments with few leakages in the system. Most significantly, a growing body of evidence explains that with suitable delivery replicas, (G2P) payments recipients can be simply brought …

  For the fiscal year 2014, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific have projected the country’s GDP to pick up to 4.1 percent. A report launched by UNESCAP stated that in the recent months, positive changes had been experienced in the economy of the country which included an improvement in the growth of large scale manufacturing industries; appreciation of the local currency; increase in …

  The Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) considered as backbone of large scale industries and in fact can play an effective role in reducing poverty, which is increasing to an alarming scale in Pakistan. It is painful to see that even after 68 years of creation of Pakistan the dream of a peaceful, prosperous life with equal opportunities to every Pakistanis still seems to be a distant dream. It is …

  While announcing its monetary policy for next two months, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decided last month to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 10 percent. The analysts see no rationale to maintain the discount rate at 10 percent by the central bank as all fundamentals are in favor of a reduction in the interest rate. So far as inflation is concerned, the average Consumer Price Index …

  With the monetary policy having been announced by the State Bank of Pakistan, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has expressed their concern. The president of the FPCCI, Mr. Shaukat Ahmed was of the opinion that keeping the policy rate unchanged was not seen as a measure taken to implement policy rather it is an act of escapism; a means by which the necessary measures …

  In the last Monetary Policy decision, discount rate has been maintained at 10 percent against expectations that interest rate will reduce at the back of reduction in CPI, average CPI recorded at 8.6 percent in FY14. With declining trend of inflation and projections of SBP for single digit inflation, discount rate is expected to reduce further. For FY15, CPI is expected to remain between 7.5 percent and 8.5 percent. …

  Cement export to Afghanistan declined by 58 percent Despite earnest support to Afghan economy besides offering tariff free transit trade, the export of different commodities required for infrastructure development are on the decline to such an extent that the export of cement, the basic need for development, has declined by 58 percent to Afghanistan. Although the reasons for declining exports are being attributed to the withdrawal of NATO forces …

  It is often said that the fiscal and monetary policies of the country have been dictated by the multilateral lenders i.e. International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. This statement is partly correct and partly wrong. Since the lenders give money they also want to ensure its return as per agreed schedule. Therefore, they have a major say in the formation of these two critically important policies. However, …