Following its ninth review of the program, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) asked Pakistan to focus on accelerating steps to widen the tax net and raise funds for more infrastructure investment and social assistance after the country failed to reach its fiscal deficit and tax revenue targets under an IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF). However, the IMF welcomed the government’s plans to take action to attain the budget deficit …

  Established following World War II to help with post-war recovery, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) serves as a lender to modern governments and an overseer of international financial markets. Both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created in 1944 at a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and are now based in Washington, DC. The IMF was originally designed to promote international economic cooperation and provide …

  Pakistan is presently going through process of rapid economic development, which includes privatization of major government corporations, aimed at attracting foreign investment and lessening budget deficit. In 2014, foreign currency reserves crossed $15 billion mark, which has led to steady lookout on the long-term rating. External debt in Pakistan remained unchanged at $64,338 million in the fourth quarter of 2014. External debt in Pakistan averaged $49,246.37 million from 2002 …

  Insurance business generally grows on risk perception in a society. Larger the risk level, higher the growth of insurance industry. The risk perception — risks to life, assets and public and private properties — has been higher and widely prevalent in Balochistan where the incidents of target killings and attacks on public and private properties have witnessed a phenomenal growth over the past five years. The reason is the …

  In today’s world, no country, irrespective of ideological differences, stands isolated today. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is a strong and vibrant instrument for an accelerated socio-economic development but conducive atmosphere in this regard is a must. There are two sources of FDI namely, Direct Investment and Portfolio. Direct Investment refers to investment in various industries. This represents fixed investment and is generally expected to be on long run basis …

  Agricultural production and farm incomes in Pakistan are frequently affected by natural disasters such as droughts, floods, cyclones, storms, landslides and the earthquakes. Destruction to agriculture is often combined by the outbreak of epidemics and man-made disasters such as fire, sale of unauthentic seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, etc. Farmers across the country had suffered losses of billions of rupees due to floods of 2010 and rains of 2011. Agricultural …

  In the past decade, earthquakes were the deadliest disaster as 60 percent of deaths caused by such hazards. The quakes remain a serious threat for millions of people worldwide and eight of the most populous cities in the world are built on earthquake fault-lines, this was observed by Margareta Wahlstrom, first Special Representative of the Secretary-General of United Nations for Disaster Risk Reduction, stressing the importance of investing in …

  ‘Business and commercial activities need to be coherent with the Shariah Corridor and Islamic financial laws’ Despite tremendous growth of the Islamic banking industry it is yet to go a long way to achieve the much desired objectives of socio-economic justice by raising awareness and taking benefits of interest free financial system, free from exploitation. Though more and more people are preferring Islamic banking but financial institutions offering these …

  Islamic banking industry in Pakistan has been growing at a fast pace ever since its re-launch in 2002 and now represents over 12-percent of overall banking industry with as many as 19 Islamic banking institutions offering Islamic banking products and services through a network of over 1,400 branches across the country. Almost all the conventional banks are also introducing Shariah-based banking upon which the central bank is reviewing their …

  Every Pakistani owes over Rs 101,338 in debt Govt should raise capacity to monitor and manage public debt The debt market is a market for trading the debt instruments like TFCs, Bonds, T-Bills, Commercial Papers, Participation Term Certificate, Corporate and Federal Bonds etc. A debt market establishes a structured environment where these types of debt can be traded with comfort between interested parties. The debt market is also known …