South Asia Investor Review

Pakistan's benchmark KSE-100 index hit an all-time high after the announcement of the $7 billion IMF bailout deal today. Economic indicators such as inflation, exports and remittances are also showing significant improvement as well. Speaking to reporters after the IMF deal,  the Fund Managing Director  Kristalina Georgieva acknowledged progress made by Pakistan. She said  "The economy is on the sound path. Growth is up and inflation is down". The  KSE-100 index rose in early trade to a record high of 82,905.73 points, before giving up those gains later in the day to close 0.7% down at 81,657. It still represents an annual gain of nearly 100%.  Pakistani Stock Market Outperforms Asian Peers. Source: Bloomberg Pakistan rupee has remained essentially stable at around Rs. 277 to a US dollar over the last year. Inflation has come down from 37% last year to less than 10% this year.  Exports have climbed 10.54% ($2.921 billion) to $30.645 billion during the fisc...

What is Ramadan all about? Is it only about abstaining from food and drink in the daylight hours? What is the key message for this Ramzan ? Isn't respecting Huqooq-ul-Ibad (human rights of others) as important as observing Huqooq-ul-Allah (Duties to Allah such as prayer and fasting) for each Muslim? What must Muslims do this Ramzan to fulfill all of their obligations to Allah and His creation? What does the Economic Survey of Pakistan say about Pakistan's GDP, per capita income, infrastructure development, education and other important indicators? What must Pakistani leaders do to ensure greater focus on and investment in education and not just in infrastructure ? What is the size of and the key priorities in Pakistan's budget for 2017-18? Should some of the $20 billion (out of the $50 billion budget) for infrastructure be allocated to education to boost Pakistan's stagnant literacy and school enrollment rates? Why is India losing IT jobs at a rate of 200,000 ...

How’s Pakistani economy doing? Is it gaining strength? How are the major economic indicators looking? What are Nawaz Sharif government’s economic priorities? How has it allocated spending in budget 2016-17 presented to National Assembly by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar? Why does Pakistan rely almost entirely on indirect taxation to raise revenue? Why is there such disproportionate burden for revenue placed on the poor and the middle-income Pakistanis? Why is the taxation system in Pakistan so regressive? What needs to be done to broaden the tax net to increase revenue and make the taxation system more fair. What should the provincial governments do? Should they impose at least a modest agriculture income tax and various service taxes to raise revenue? How did the Indian National Investigation Agency conclude that Pakistan and its agencies had no role in Pathankot incident in India? Why are they now backtracking from this conclusion? What evidence of India-Pakistan border breach do...

India's 2010-2011 budget of 11.08 trillion rupees ($240 billion) represents an increase of 8.6% over 2009-2010. The government plans to borrow $100 billion to finance the deficit during the fiscal year. Going forward, India plans to cut the deficit to 5.5 percent of gross domestic product in the year starting April 1 from 6.9 percent the previous year. The effort, which relies on tax increases and 400 billion rupees ($9 billion) of state asset sales, is aimed at shrinking a debt burden equivalent to about 82 percent of the GDP. The defense allocation for 2010-2011 is up another 8.13 percent on top of the massive 34% increase in 2009-2010, according to media reports . India's defense expenditure has been raised to Rs.147,344 crore (Rs.1.47 trillion/$32 billion) for 2010-11, up 8.13 percent from the revised estimates of the previous fiscal, in the budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha today. According to the Wall Street Journal , India is one ...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a 23-month, US $7.6 billion loan to Pakistan in November to avert a severe current accounts deficit and Pakistan's debt default. On November 27, the IMF released to Islamabad a first installment of $3.1 billion, in it first "bailout" of an Asian country during the current world financial crisis. Prior to this news, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari knocked on many doors and begged unsuccessfully for billions of dollars in assistance for months from "Friends of Pakistan" (FOP), a group of countries including China, Saudi Arabia and the United States. This was part of an effort by Pakistan's new president to avoid going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) . Why did the FOP decline to help? Why was Mr. Zardari trying to avoid an IMF bailout? Let's try and examine the answers to these two important questions being asked. Friends of Pakistan: Being friends, the FOP know a lot about Pakistan and M...