South Asia Investor Review

Pakistan ranks among the top 5 nations in terms of international schools offering schooling based on International Baccalaureate (IB) and IGCSE (Cambridge) curricula. China leads with 1,000 international schools, followed by India (900), UAE (784), Pakistan (598) and Brazil (415). The medium of instruction in these schools is English.  Aitchison College, Lahore, Pakistan The international schools in India and Pakistan date back to the days of the British Raj when these schools were established to serve the children of the British and the British-Indian civil servants. Later, these schools also attracted the children of diplomats and expats as well as Indian and Pakistani  elites . Today, the vast majority of students attending these schools are the children of rich Indians and Pakistanis.  Karachi Grammar School, Karachi, Pakistan The international schools favored by Pakistani elites include Aitchison College, Karachi Grammar School,  Lahore Grammar School and the Am...

Pakistan's mineral resources, estimated to be over $6 trillion, attracted global investor interest at the Pakistan Minerals Investors Forum 2025 (PMIF2025) held recently in Islamabad on April 8th and 9th. It was attended by major international companies and government officials from Australia, Canada, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, the US and other nations.  Pakistan is known to have large deposits of critical minerals from copper and gold to  lithium . Canadian Mining Journal has described the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan as "Saudi Arabia of lithium".  These deposits are found in various parts of the country, including Balochistan,  Gilgit,  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and the Exclusive Economic Zone of Pakistan's coastal waters. The Geological Survey of Pakistan also notes the potential of lithium in LCT-type pegmatites and super arid salt lakes. Pakistan's major lithium-bearing areas are found in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Tribal Areas (...

President Donald Trump's announcement of "reciprocal tariffs" has shocked the world. Nations and corporations were all expecting the US to increase tariffs but the scope and scale have caused severe tremors in the global economy.  There's a base level of 10% tariffs on all trading partners. Imports from China (54%), Vietnam (46%), Bangladesh (37%), Pakistan (29%), India (26%), Japan (24%) and the European Union (20%) are all subject to higher tariffs. Even the poor African nation of Lesotho (GDP: $2.5 billion) has not been spared. It is now subject to a 50% tariff on the jeans it exports to the United States.  Trump's Reciprocal Tariffs. Source: CNBC The charts showing President Trump's claimed tariffs on US imports by other countries have no resemblance to reality. For example, the US Commerce Department claims Pakistan imposes a 58% tariff on imports from the US. Pakistan's trade weighted average tariffs on the US goods were  7.3%  compared to 9.9% that ...

Islamabad is establishing the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) to look into regulating and legalizing the use of cryptocurrencies, according to media reports. Cryptocurrency refers to digital currencies that can be used to make purchases or investments using encryption algorithms. US President Donald Trump's endorsement of cryptocurrencies and creation of a " bitcoin reserve " has boosted investors’ confidence in it.   The State Bank of Pakistan, the nation's central bank, has not authorized any individuals or organizations to carry out the sale, purchase, exchange, and investment of  digital currencies , coins, and tokens. But the country has not officially banned the use of cryptocurrencies either, allowing about 20 million users to engage in crypto transactions. “We are coming on number three and four globally and there are many blockchain technology opportunities in Pakistan", said Bilal Saqib, the chair of the PCC.   Top Countries Ranked By Global Crypto ...

Pakistan has outranked India yet again on the  World Happiness Index , making Indians very very unhappy. Indian media commentators' strong negative emotional reaction to their nation's poor ranking  betrays how unhappy they are even as they insist they are happier than their neighbors. Coming from the privileged upper castes, these commentators call the report " absurd ", citing India's higher per capita incomes and its space program. They seem detached from the real conditions in which the vast majority of Indians find themselves. They fail to acknowledge the high levels of  inequality  and  unemployment  prevalent in their country. A  CNBC  report last year found that one billion Indians have a per capita income of just $1,000 a year, lower than that of sub-Saharan Africans. 92.5% of Indians live in conditions similar to or worse than those experienced by the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. No wonder India ranks alongside the poorest su...

Pakistan Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), jointly launched by Habib Bank (HBL) and S&P Global, is showing sustained growth in manufacturing for the last several months.  It has been consistently above 50, indicating expansion. This indicator disagrees with contraction reported by Pakistan Bureau and Statistics (PBS) Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) indicator. What accounts for this discrepancy? Is it because the LSM tracks only a subset of industries tracked by PMI? Is there a difference in methodology?  Pakistan PMI Trend. Source: S&P Global Here's one plausible explanation offered by analyst Humaira Qamar at HBL: "As per the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Large scale manufacturing (LSM) contracted 1.8% in the latter half of 2024. However, excluding the hefty decline in the low-weight furniture segment, LSM trended positively. Our PMI release suggests that the recovery has extended into 2025, with demand-side conditions taking cue from a sharp reduction in the policy r...