Trade & Economy

  Every third Pakistani is living below the poverty line Poverty alleviation was one of the key objectives of the economic agenda of the PML (N) government and microfinance is the most effective instruments of poverty reduction. As per World Bank estimates, around 25 million people live in extreme poverty in Pakistan and the adverse impacts of global financial, food, and fuel crises posed multiple challenges to Pakistan’s rapidly evolving …

  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 …

  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. …

  Textile sector hit hard due to high interest rate, electricity, gas outages High interest rate, political instability, deteriorating law and order situation, frequent power and gas outages and high power and gas tariffs are not only hindering growth of investment but also putting an additional burden on the country’s industrial sector apart from squeezing the gross margins of industries. In Pakistan lack of capital is a major obstacle in …

  Boundaries between services and industry are changing fast, and about half of all services in modern industrialized economies are sold and bought while embedded in the form of goods. While the content and function of goods remain important, the designing, marketing, consultancy and advertising services claim a share of the value added to goods. Manufacturing, too, has important contribution from services, such as resource planning, warehousing, value chain analysis, …

  It may be said that elected governments bother to introduce special schemes ensuring better job opportunities for educated youth and undertaking Benazir Income Support Program and the latest being Prime Minister Youth Business Loan scheme. However, all these may cater a few favorites or a limited segment of the society. The prime responsibility of the government is to create enabling environment that can usher new investment, creation of productive …

  On-Line Banking, atms & telecash rule the financial world Although Pakistan offers tremendous opportunities for investment in the financial sector as the country still has a huge un-banked areas particularly the rural population, yet the telecom sector has come out to fill the gap by expanding the outreach even remotest parts of the country. Successful use of information technology in the financial sector is an example, which needs to …

  The word governance is often tied to corporations and business. Little have we heard about “Global Governance” or “World Governance” which is a new term coined with increase in globalization. Global governance means political interactions between countries aimed for problem solving and act more social. It means that no one country has the responsibility and power over the other for compliance. Global governance becomes even more important with the …

  Even a cursory look at the development of Singapore shows that the country has grown mainly by ‘living within available means’ or avoiding deficit financing. The country has also become hub of industrial and commercial activities because of very low taxes being collected from corporate entities and individuals. The added advantage is confidence in government policies, while Pakistan continues to suffer from budget deficit, trade deficit and on top …

  Pakistan-China economic corridor has the potential to usher in a new era of economic progress and prosperity for both countries and benefiting the whole region as well. The project is expected to be ‘a game changer’ not only for Pakistan and China but also for the whole region. Last year, Pakistan and China signed a deal to build a $18 billion economic corridor linking Pakistan’s Gwadar Port on the …