The stock market commenced the trading week on a negative note mainly because of uncertainty over the resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. Arif Habib Ltd said the positive statement issued by the IMF’s director for the Middle East and Central Asian department about a staff-level agreement with Pakistan helped restore some confidence in the market. Additionally, Paki
It is true that personal data is becoming a currency in today’s digital economy. With the rise of big data and advanced analytics technologies, businesses increasingly rely on personal data to gain insights into consumer behaviour and preferences and develop targeted marketing campaigns. This has led to a situation where personal data has significant economic value and is traded and exchanged like
THE State Bank of Pakistan is trying to check inflation through just one instrument, the interest rate, based on the theological belief that the issue is demand, ignoring other, more critical factors fuelling inflation today. There are both demand pull and cost-push factors influencing inflation, and this instrument is being expected to achieve multiple objectives. The sources of demand in t
In nine months of this fiscal year (between July 2022 and March 2023), the PML-N led government borrowed more than Rs2 trillion from banks to meet budgetary requirements, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. In the same period of the last fiscal year (between July 2021 and March 2022), the then PTI-led federal government borrowed Rs969 billion. The government’s need for borrowing has been o
In Pakistan, as elsewhere, the continuing multiple crises are opening up new opportunities for a gradual shift in policy and business practices as changing ground realities tend to destabilise the status quo. This emerges from the views of firm owners about present business conditions, future business outlook as well as the increasing number of new firms incorporated with the Securities and Exc