South Asia Investor Review

LNG spot prices hit a new low of $4 per mmBTU as the supply continues to significantly outstrip demand. It's creating opportunities for Pakistan to get access to large supply of cheap fuel for its power generation. With softening demand from China and 130 million tons per year (mmpta) of additional LNG supply set to reach market over the next five years, gas research firm Wood Mackenzie sees continuing downward pressure on global LNG spot prices. LNG Price History Source: WSJ “The entire industry is worried because it is hard to tell when China’s demand will pick up again,” said an LNG strategist at a Malaysian energy company who attended the Wood Mackenzie conference in Singapore, according to Wall Street Journal . “Rising demand from smaller countries such as Pakistan, Egypt and Bangladesh is not enough to offset the declining demand from north Asia.” As recently as two years ago, LNG shipped to big North Asian countries like Japan and Korea sold at around $15 to $...

Uber, the rapidly growing San Francisco based behemoth known for its taxi app,  appears to be getting ready to launch its service in Lahore, Pakistan, according to media reports. A report in Tech In Asia points to the  career page on Uber  website that shows openings for “general manager”, “operations and logistics manager”, and a “marketing manager,” for Lahore,  Pakistan's second-largest city. In fact, Uber has confirmed its plans to launch in Pakistan soon, according to  TechJuice . “We can confirm we are currently recruiting for a team in Lahore, and are very excited about launching in Pakistan as we see huge potential in the way we can help people move around their city safely and reliably,” Shaden Abdellatif, communications manager for Uber’s Middle East and Africa operations told TechJuice. “We are also excited about the opportunity for economic empowerment we can bring to the drivers we partner with.” It makes sense given the size of the Paki...

Monthly new subscriptions of 3G and 4G in Pakistan doubled to 2.22 million in September 2015, up from 1.1 million new subscribers in August 2015.  This brings the total number of mobile broadband subscribers to 18.04 million and total of all broadband subscriptions to 21.2 million since 3G-4G launch in May 2014, according to the latest data released by  Pakistan Telecommunications Authority . Mobile Broadband Subscriptions in Pakistan Source: PTA Increasing use of the Internet is now being put to good use to deal with the tragic aftermath of the the earthquake in Pakistan.  Facebook and  Google  have set up special pages to help people find each other. Demand for  smartphones  is also accelerating in Pakistan along with the rise in mobile broadband subscriptions. Forecasters estimate the number of  smartphone sales to increase to 40 million  by next year. Overall, 3G and 4G subscriptions in Pakistan jumped 14.43 % during September ...

Pakistan  auto industry  is booming. Toyota, Suzuki and Honda factories are working around the clock in the southern port city of Karachi and eastern city of Lahore -- yet customers can still wait for up to four months for new vehicles to be delivered, according to  media reports . At the same time, increased construction activity is visible everywhere in the country. Local car sales, excluding imported cars, jumped to 54,812 units in the first three months (Jul-Sep) of fiscal year 2016, up 72% from 31,899 units in the same period of last year, according to data released by the  Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) . Pak Suzuki led the pack with 33,770 units followed by Indus Motors (Toyota) 14,767 cars and Honda Motors 6,184 units. Industry analysts at Topline Securities expect local car sales to reach 203,653 units during the current fiscal year. Car sales (excluding imported ones) in Pakistan grew at a five-year (FY11-15) compound annual g...

Pakistan’s middle class consists of over 6.27 million adults, according to wealth criteria used by Credit Suisse in its  Global Wealth Report 2015 . It represents 5.7% share of Pakistan’s total adult population of 111 million, almost twice as large as India’s middle class made up of 3% of its adult population based on the same criteria. Source: Credit Suisse Wealth Databook 2015 Average ($4,459) and median ($2,216) wealth figures for Pakistani middle class adults are higher than average ($4,352) and median ($868) wealth figures for their Indian middle class counterparts. It's a consequence of lower income wealth inequality in Pakistan compared to its neighbor.  For comparison, only 1.1% of  Bangladesh  adult population qualify as middle class. Their average wealth is $2,201 and median wealth $1,102 per adult. Pakistan Wealth Source: Global Wealth Report 2015 Via Express Tribune Credit Suisse's report estimates Pakistan's total private wealth in mid-2015 ...

This year's Nobel Prize winning  economist Angus Deaton  of Princeton University considers foreign aid to developing nations a curse like the oft-mentioned resource curse of energy and mineral-rich nations of Africa and the Middle East. Deaton has studied poverty in India and Africa and spent many decades working at the World Bank whose charter it is to fight poverty. He argues that, by trying to help poor people in developing countries, the rich world may actually be  corrupting those nations' governments  and slowing their growth and hurting the poor in the process. Prof William Easterly of New York University has published a paper titled  "Can Foreign Aid Buy Growth?"  that supports the view that increase in foreign aid has reduced economic growth in Africa. Source: William Easterly of NYU In addition to being recipients of foreign aid, most African countries are also rich in resources ranging from oil and gas to diamonds and metals. Yet, their...

"The Pakistani establishment, as we saw in 1998 with the nuclear test, does not view assistance -- even sizable assistance to their own entities -- as a trade-off for national security vis-a-vis India". US Ambassador Anne Patterson, September 23, 2009 Having failed to persuade, intimidate, bribe and sanction Pakistan to abandon its nuclear weapons program , there are credible reports that Washington is now ready to accept Pakistan as a legitimate nuclear weapons state in exchange for limiting the range of the country's ballistic missiles . Washington is abuzz with the news of major think tank analyses and credible media reports indicating that the October 22, 2015 Obama-Sharif summit agenda includes US-Pakistan civil nuclear deal along the lines of India-US civilian nuclear deal . According to a Washington Post report, the deal with Pakistan centers around a civilian nuclear agreement similar to the one the United States arrived at with India, in exchange f...