News

Equities hit all-time high despite economic concerns amid floods

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has marked a significant milestone, closing at an all-time high of 158,037 points, reflecting a week-on-week gain of 2.3 per cent. This performance, achieved largely through institutional buying, signals strong investor confidence. Despite a challenging economic backdrop, including the ongoing floods and a decline in foreign direct investment (FDI), liquidity c

Massive taxes and the NFC conundrum

Pakistan has a fiscal problem, and the problem cannot be fixed by increasing tax rates. We have reached the point of the cycle where increasing tax rates is counter-intuitive, catalyses an informal economy, and discourages the formation of capital and economic activity within the formal realm. Pakistan has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world while also having one of the highest

An emerging binding constraint

The growth of the agriculture sector largely depends on crop yield improvements, which are influenced by several factors. Among these, the nationwide availability of, and farmers’ access to high-yielding, climate-resilient seeds stands out as the most critical determinant of yield, assuming all other conditions remain constant. History bears this out. The real driving force behind the Green Rev

BusCaro raises $2m to tackle tricky mobility sector

Venture capital is starting to trickle back into Pakistan. In the latest round, Mobility startup BusCaro raised $2 million last week, bringing its total funding to $3.5m. The round was led by UAE-based Daman Investments, with participation from US/Saudi Cartography Capital, New York’s Epic Angest, UK’s Wahed Ventures, the Aga Khan Development Network’s Accelerate Prosperity, and a mix of angel

US-China step into a new phase

With the spotlight turning away from the unilateral US tariffs and onto the future of TikTok in America, China seems to have dominated the latest round of the ongoing trade talks with Washington. At the conclusion of the Madrid round last week, both China and the US said they had reached a basic framework consensus on resolving the TikTok dispute, alongside commitments to reduce investment barr