News

Dollar sales to banks fell by $70m in Feb

KARACHI. The selling of dollars to banks fell by $70 million in February, said currency dealers on Monday. The open market had been selling over $300m for most of the months in the current fiscal year. “In January we sold about $320m to the banks but it fell to around $250m in February,” said Malik Bostan, Chairman Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan. “The decline was due to the ma

Stock market manages to post modest gain in mixed week

The stock market managed to close the topsy-turvy week in the green. Heralding political stability after Shehbaz Sharif took oath as the 24th prime minister of Pakistan, the market staged a robust rally of 626 points in the first session of the outgoing week which propelled the benchmark KSE 100-share index briefly above 66,000 points but settled below this level. However, the market in the

Pay gap — the case of Pakistan

Pakistan is one of the worst countries in the world regarding gender parity, ranking 142 out of 146 countries as per the Global Gender Gap Index 2023, released by the World Economic Forum. The ranking is a function of education, health, economic opportunity, and political empowerment. It covers a wide range of economic and social indicators, including a dismal literacy rate, a high school dropo

Attracting China’s relocating industries

The ongoing struggle of the world’s second-largest economy against multiple challenges, such as geopolitical tensions with the West, troubled property sector, overcapacity in the manufacturing industry, and local government indebtedness to sustain economic growth, would lead many to believe that it is fading rapidly, even if it is not over yet. However, the dragon country seems to be undertakin

CORPORATE WINDOW: Profit and ‘shrinkflation’

Amid consumers’ continuous struggle to survive under rising costs of living and unaffordable utility bills, essential goods makers must be upbeat about robust sales and profits in 2023. Manufacturers’ shining results usually highlight sales, profit and loss, inventory losses, finance costs, gross profit, etc., but the volumes of their various products remain missing from their balance sheets. P