The World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report has projected Pakistan’s economic growth to slow down to 2% during the current year – two percentage points lower than the June 2022 estimateBy Ghulam HaiderThe World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects report has forecast Pakistan’s economic growth to slow further to two percent during the current year, indicating a drop of two percentage points from its June 2022 estimates.Pakistan is in the news for economic meltdown amidst natural disasters, food shortages and poverty. The country had unprecedented floods in July – August last year, devastating large swathes of farmlands and destroying critical infrastructure. The forex reserves in the country which hit a new low of USD 4.6 bil...
January 20, 2023 at 5:00 pm | Economic Affairs
Web3 not only promises security but also the privileges of ownership, control and monetization of content. In short, it is a read-write-own web. By Abdullah Qureshi Ever since the co-founder of Ethereum, Gavin Wood, originated the thought of Web3 back in 2014, the tech community has been catalyzed into the discussion around it. How would it revolutionize the way we share information? How is it going to shift the course of the digital economy? How is it going to affect healthcare, business, media, energy, and pretty much every single sector? And most importantly, is it feasible? The operating economy for Web3 would surely be cryptocurrency. The incidents of scams and detrimental speculation in the crypto market, during the past few...
January 5, 2023 at 3:26 pm | Economic Affairs
Bad governance, fragile security, volatile political environment and profusely bleeding economy have exacerbated problems of Pakistan, which is spending more on imports that is causing persistent rise in current account deficitBy Ghulam HaiderFew terms like dwindling foreign exchange reserves, tumbling exports, skyrocketing inflation, unabated fiscal and current account deficit are synonym to Pakistan’s plummeting economic condition.Always on the hunt for exploring new avenues for sourcing funding and loans with break-neck conditions has been the traditional venture for every government in power in the country of around 230 million people, with almost 60 per cent of the total population being below 30 years of age.The exhausting of Pakis...
December 29, 2022 at 4:40 pm | Economic Affairs
IMF shares prerequisites list asking implementation in two to three weeks, which could pave way for releasing of a $1 billion tranche besides a grant of Rs. 340 billion adjuster because of floods By Ghulam Haider The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has handed over Pakistan a list of to-do list them in the next three weeks if they want to revive the stalled loan programme of $1 billion under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), which is expected to provide a much-needed breather to the sagging economy. Telling Islamabad that that the time has come to take “all required actions,” the IMF has given Pakistani authorities a timeframe of two to three weeks for implementing all required actions, which will pave the way for a staff-lev...
December 27, 2022 at 3:16 pm | Economic Affairs
By Ghulam HaiderThe Council General of the United Arab Emirates has quashed the rumors that authorities in the UAE have restricted visit visas for Pakistanis belonging to some specific cities.The Consul General of the United Arab Emirates in Karachi H.E Bakheet Ateeq Al Romaithi has said that there is no truth that visit visas are being denied to people from specific cities of origin in Pakistan.'No ban has been imposed on Pakistani citizens and visas are being issued indiscriminately,' he told a private television channel, and added that he himself was issuing visas to people belonging to different cities.He expressed dismay over the news and stated that he was unaware of who was behind this disinformation campaign.However, immigration of...
December 27, 2022 at 3:14 pm | Economic Affairs
Pakistan is now regarded the most attractive frontier market which is practically untapped from a startup perspective. That is why many international venture capital firms and angel investors have shown noteworthy interest in Pakistan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. By Abdullah Qureshi As of 2022, 64% of Pakistan’s population is comprised of tech-savvy, talented, and innovative youth. And 23% of them, with their entrepreneurial mindset, want to establish their own business. (UNDP) This shows that Pakistan has the key ingredient, creative entrepreneurs, for a thriving startup environment. But startups cannot survive in a vacuum. They need a nurturing and healthy atmosphere to manifest and grow. That’s where the notion of a start...
December 24, 2022 at 12:21 am | Economic Affairs
Depleting foreign reserves, nosediving currency are pushing up cost of imports, borrowing and debt servicing, which will exacerbate inflation running already at a multi-decade high of 27.3% By Ghulam Haider The World Bank has projected Pakistan’s GDP growth to around 2 percent in the fiscal year 2023 while inflation will rise to 23 percent, with preliminary estimates suggesting that the national poverty rate for Pakistan can increase by 2.5 to 4 percentage points, pushing between 5.8 and 10 million people into poverty. Pakistan remains exposed to external conditions, with the macroeconomic outlook sensitive to global commodity prices and financing conditions. Higher international interest rates, deteriorations in market sentimen...
December 17, 2022 at 1:49 pm | Economic Affairs
By Ghulam Haider The Business Confidence Index (BCI) Survey (Wave-22) carried out by the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) has revealed that the business confidence has nosedived in the last six months across different sectors of the economy in Pakistan. The survey, which has been conducted across the country in September-October, says that the overall business confidence score dropped to negative four per cent, down 21 percentage points from the previous score of 17% recorded in Wave-21 held in March-April. “The substantial decline in the overall business confidence to negative 4pc is regrettable but not surprising considering the highly challenging political and economic situation du...
December 16, 2022 at 6:29 pm | Economic Affairs
The younger population, especially young males, are overwhelmingly inclined towards leaving the country. By Ghulam Haider As many as 37 per cent of the Pakistan’s population would like to leave the country if they are given an opportunity to do so with economic reasons to be the most dominant one for their desire to settle abroad, revealed a survey by renowned think-tank namely Pakistan Institute of Development Economics Search for equal opportunities and more respect comes out to be the next two important reasons. Looking for gender equality and more security also feature among the major reasons for the desire to leave the country. Why do people want to leave if they want to leave? Leaving one’s home is not an easy option,...
December 16, 2022 at 6:24 pm | Economic Affairs
With IMF’s ninth review pending since September, Pakistan has desperately been scrambling to secure financing to meet external payment obligations for current financial year Pakistan has been struggling to pay salaries to staff of some of its missions abroad, citing "fiscal crunch" and "shortage of dollars" By Ghulam Haider Pakistan's economic turmoil stoked by International Monetary Fund's loan trance and nosediving rupee has hit a new low as the shortage of US dollars is making it extremely difficult for local banks to make international payments in foreign currency. Amid the ongoing currency fluctuations in cash-strapped Pakistan, a black market for dollars has sprung up in the country after the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP...
December 16, 2022 at 6:19 pm | Economic Affairs
Pakistan Rupee Exchange Rate