THE government has received only one bid for the privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. A total of six consortiums had qualified to bid for the loss-making entity. However, five of them stayed away from the process. The sole bidder has deposited “earnest money” for the transaction with the Privatisation Commission by Tuesday’s deadline, Ahsan I
Amid delays in securing an International Monetary Fund (IMF) support package, Pakistan’s foreign assistance inflows plunged by 60 per cent to $2.3 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (July-September), down from about $5.73bn in the same period last year. In its monthly report on Foreign Economic Assistance (FEA) released on Tuesday, the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) said t
Investors are selling yen and taking shelter in cash, India, pockets of China’s markets and Singapore dollars ahead of a US election that could shake out global money and trade flows. Asia’s financial markets stand on the front line of what could be a wild ride when votes are tallied and in the months ahead since the region is an export powerhouse and shares and currencies are sensitive to chan
Contrary to last year’s gloomy conditions, the booming equity market attracted many initial public offerings (IPOs) and companies raised over Rs8 billion in calendar 2024. Market experts said such a favourable situation emerged after 2021, making it attractive for investors while the Pakistan Stock Exchange set records daily, encouraging companies to tap into the equity market. A total of se
Adam Smith, in his 1776 masterpiece, ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’, observed that for a nation to prosper, little else is required than to provide individuals with economic freedom. If economic freedom is provided, the rest of the requisites will be brought upon by the natural course of things. On the other hand, for decades, democracy has also been accepted a