Friday, April 18 2025

Record March surplus fuels rally on PSX
Despite overnight concerns regarding a contraction in Large-Scale Manufacturing and decreasing foreign exchange reserves, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) experienced renewed buying interest from equity investors on Thursday. This boost in confidence was driven by a record current account surplus and a series of positive developments, enhancing the overall economic outlook. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the market showed a sharp recovery amid a $1.2bn record current account surplus in March and a first-ever two-year extension in an oil credit facility from Kuwait, which would ease rupee instability and attract foreign inflows. He added that the rating upgrade from Fitch, surging Asian equities and crude oil prices, record remittances and low inflation were other key factors that contributed to the bullish close at the PSX.
Related news categories: business economic-indicators psx stock-exchanges

Double-edged sword
THE generous ‘incentives package’ for Pakistani expats, announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, is yet another symptom of the Dutch disease afflicting Pakistan’s economy. In our case, however, the disease is not linked to natural resources, which mostly remain unexplored, but to the growing reliance on workers’ abroad to stay afloat. Amid drying up foreign loan and aid flows, the dependence on remittances has had a major role in crowding out manufacturing and exports, leading to deindustrialisation over more than a decade. The package for overseas Pakistanis comprises special courts to address their cases, age relaxation in government jobs, medical college quotas for their children, relief in banking and business transaction taxes, green channel facilities at airports, civil awards, etc.
Related news categories: business economic-indicators misc

China and Pakistan
HOW should Pakistan choose between the US and China? So far, a choice has not been foisted upon us, but the time is coming when it will be. Before that time arrives, it is a good idea to devote some structured thinking to the matter and be prepared to act. Not too long ago, a piece of advice was offered by Hina Rabbani Khar, one-time minister of state for finance and foreign minister of the country and an otherwise very smart individual whose words deserve to be taken seriously. In an internal memo that was leaked in April 2023, she cautioned against trying to appease the West and underlined the importance of maintaining the “real strategic” tie-up with China, despite mounting Western pressure. In a separate interview, Khawaja Asif echoed much the same thinking, emphasising the difficulty Pakistan faces in undertaking a rupture either way — with the US or with China.
Related news categories: business economic-indicators misc

Hungary, Pakistan lift visa requirement for diplomatic passports
Hungary and Pakistan agreed on Thursday to mutually lift the visa requirement for diplomatic passport-holders in each other’s countries as its foreign minister visited Islamabad. According to the Foreign Office (FO), Hungary’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó was on a one-day visit to Pakistan on the invitation of his counterpart Ishaq Dar. He is accompanied by a high-level business delegation to explore business opportunities in Pakistan. Addressing a joint press conference in Islamabad with Dar, Szijjártó said: “We are happy that we were able to sign the agreement to the visa requirement for diplomatic passport-holders. We have done it because we want our relation to be even more intensified.”
Related news categories: business economic-indicators misc

Govt to seek fresh bids for PIA next week: privatisation ministry
The government will publish an advertisement next week to attract new bidders for the privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the privatisation ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. The government’s failed first attempt to privatise PIA cost the national exchequer $4.3 million, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Privatisation was informed on February 26. Last month, Privatisation and Investment Minister Abdul Aleem Khan said that the government would complete all the steps to privatise PIA by May, while the pri­vatisation commission approved a transaction structure for the second attempt to privatise the national carrier based on a divestment of 51 to 100 per cent of its shares of capital.
Related news categories: business economic-indicators psx stock-exchanges transport
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