Category: Business

A sea of red washed across Asian markets on Wednesday, with the coronavirus spreading rapidly around the world and health chiefs warning that governments were not prepared for the outbreak. The heavy selling, after a day of relative calm caused by bargain-buying, followed another rout on Wall Street where all three main indexes lost around […]

Pakistan is clearly ill-prepared to deal with the possible impact of the epidemic crisis in China that may take time to subside. It can lead to supply chain disruptions, amplify the inflation and suppress consumer and business confidence, rattling the fragile economy and dragging the low GDP growth rate further down. There is an uneasy […]

Pakistan cannot survive without increasing exports exponentially. Sadly, it was only recently that the country’s policymakers realised the importance of exports for the country to break out of periodic boom-and-bust cycles responsible for leading us to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the fourth bailout in less than two decades. The consumption-driven growth strategy pursued […]

Last week, Lums hosted Dr Salman Shah, adviser to the Punjab chief minister on economic affairs, for a presentation of the freshly minted “Business Plan of Punjab”. Though Dr Shah delivered the message with candour and conviction, the plan came across as nothing but a skilful patchwork of past consultancy reports devoid of a pragmatic […]

ISLAMABAD: Amid delays in K-Electric takeover by the Shanghai Electric Limited (SEL) of China, the government has decided in principle to facilitate the Karachi-based power utility to increase its own generation capacity by 1,600MW and enhance supply from the national grid to 1,400MW on an urgent basis. For this to deliver, the government would immediately […]

Stocks began the new week on a free fall, with the benchmark KSE-100 index losing over 1,105 points – down 2.82 per cent – to close at 39, 143, well below the 40,000 barrier. Today’s losses followed a lacklustre last week during which the market remained largely flat as bulls and bears managed to secure an […]

ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has approved the Uber and Careem merger, imposing pro-competitive and tough conditions ensuring a level-playing field for new entrants and competitors in the app-based ridesharing market. The conditions will remain applicable on Uber up to three years after the merger or until the occurrence of ‘meaningful market entry […]

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Dr Reza Baqir on Thursday said the worst phase of economic stabilisation is now over and the country’s business sector has a bright future ahead of them. He made these remarks during his keynote address at the “CEO Summit Asia 2020” organised by the CEO Club Pakistan and […]

Global stock markets slipped on Friday after a spike in new virus cases in South Korea and other countries refuelled investor anxiety about China’s disease outbreak. Benchmarks in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney closed down and London, Frankfurt and other European indexes were trading lower. Wall Street futures was also expected to dip on the […]

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Thursday decided to keep gas and electricity prices unchanged for the next four months [till the announcement of next fiscal budget] and tasked the ministries concerned with reducing taxes on utility bills to provide some relief to the inflation-hit people. The prime minister, while presiding over a meeting of the […]