News

Daronomics — good or bad for the economy?

Is “Daronomics” or economic policies followed by our Finance Minister Ishaq Dar good or bad for our economy? Most commentators give a “yes” or “no” answer. However, this response is generally not based on objective criteria but on political partiality. This article presents a four-year comparison of three key economic indicators during the three previous governments. It also suggests the way forwa

FATF exit to address liquidity crunch, business leaders say

The removal of Pakistan from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will boost the economy by attracting foreign direct investment as well as address the liquidity issues faced by Islamabad, said the business community on Sunday. As it hailed the decision of the terror financing watchdog, business leaders said the FATF exit will restore the confidence of international financial

Ishaq Dar refuses tax waiver on IT exports

The government has dismissed an IT industry’s demand for waiving a ‘negligible’ tax on its services to support the sector’s faltering exports but agreed to provide maximum facilitation, including exemption from audit by the tax authorities. Presiding over a meeting of the IT sector on Sunday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar observed that the effective tax rate on the sector was about 0.25 per cent,

Stocks drift lower ahead of FATF announcement

The benchmark index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange moved in both directions on Thursday ahead of the expected announcement from the Financial Action Task Force, which is likely to reclassify Pakistan into its white list from the grey list. Topline Securities said the KSE-100 index opened in the green zone and made an intraday high of 196 points (0.46 per cent). But profit-taking kicked in after

SBP reserves steady

Foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) remained unchanged during the week ended on Oct 14, the central bank announced on Thursday. The SBP reserves were $7.597 billion while the holdings of the commercial banks were $5.653bn during the week. The total reserves of the country were almost unchanged at $13.251bn. The interbank market witnessed a slight appreciation of 8 p