Despite a series of interest rate cuts, a sharp contraction in the large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector further jolted investor confidence in the economic outlook. As a result, equity prices continued receiving massive battering, pushing the benchmark KSE 100 index to drop below 114,000 on Thursday. Topline Securities Ltd said the index settled at 113,837, reflecting a decrease of 659 points
Social assistance is everywhere conditional, and in Pakistan it is no different. Either it comes with behavioural strings attached — ‘do this and we’ll help you, don’t and we won’t’ — or it is targeted, with receipt conditional on being a specific type of person or facing a particular type of problem (think Benazir Income Support Programme [BISP]and the extreme poor). Those who defend this appr
Pakistan is working on launching a $250 million Green Impact Fund (GIF) to channel international commitments meant for climate change to finance green micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) in the country. The plan proposed by Karandaaz — a non-profit firm drawing funds from international donors — came under discussion at a meeting of the PM’s Committee on Social Impact Financing presided over by
India will be the global production hub for Suzuki Motor’s electric cars and it plans to export the vehicles back to Japan as well as other markets, such as Europe, despite a slowdown in sales of EVs, the carmaker’s chief said on Thursday. India is the biggest market by sales and revenue for Suzuki Motor, present there through its majority stake in market leader Maruti Suzuki. On Friday, Mar
The State Bank of Pakistan on Thursday confirmed the rollover of two deposits of $1 billion each for another year by the United Arab Emirates. The national bank said the deposits were maturing this month. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced last week that the UAE had agreed to roll over the payment of $2bn due by Pakistan this month. Securing external financing has previously been