Author: capital

BEIJING: China’s central bank extended its gold buying spree for a 15th month in January, data from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) showed on Saturday. The country’s gold holdings rose to 74.19 million fine troy ounces by the end of January, up from 74.15 million the previous month. The value of China’s gold reserves increased to $369.58 billion at the end of last month from $319.45 billion a month earlier, according to the PBOC. Gold, long seen as a safe-haven asset to hedge against political and economic risks, saw…

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ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan on Saturday underscored Pakistan’s push to expand bilateral trade and industrial cooperation with Uzbekistan as he inaugurated the Made in Uzbekistan Exhibition on the sidelines of the Pakistan-Uzbekistan Business Forum in Islamabad. According to an official statement, the inauguration ceremony was attended by Uzbekistan’s minister of trade, Federal Minister for Communications Abdul Aleem Khan, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain, and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Industries and Production Haroon Akhtar Khan. The commerce…

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ISLAMABAD: The World Bank reaffirmed its commitment to Pakistan’s $20 billion development programme on Sunday, underscoring its continued support for the country’s reform and development agenda. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb met World Bank Group Managing Director Anna Bjerde on the sidelines of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies in Saudi Arabia. The meeting reviewed progress under Pakistan’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) and followed up on the recent visit of the World Bank president to Pakistan. Discussions focused on key priority sectors, including energy, education, health, climate resilience, infrastructure, fiscal reforms, and…

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CHENGDU: The 29th China (Sichuan) New Year Shopping Festival, one of the nation’s premier annual trade and cultural events, is currently in full swing in Chengdu from January 30 to February 11, with a parallel session taking place in Chongqing. This year’s festival features an expansive 50,000-square-metre main exhibition area in Chengdu, attracting over a thousand enterprises from 36 countries and regions, as well as nearly 30 Chinese provinces, showcasing more than 100,000 varieties of high-quality New Year goods. Among the diverse international participants, Pakistan is represented by eight companies…

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KARACHI: Pakistan’s stock market witnessed choppy trading during the week ended February 6 as the benchmark KSE-100 index closed largely flat amid mixed macroeconomic signals, external uncertainties and domestic security concerns. Inflation inched up slightly, trade deficit widened on a cumulative basis despite record monthly exports, while foreign exchange reserves posted a modest increase, reflecting a cautiously stable macroeconomic backdrop. On a day-on-day basis, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) commenced the week on a positive note, with the KSE-100 index advancing 883 points (+0.48%) to close at 185,058. On Tuesday,…

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ISLAMABAD: In Pakistan, clean energy is often framed as a climate obligation – a commitment made in international forums, discussed in policy papers, and debated in technical terms. But this framing misses the central economic and human dimension. Clean energy is not merely an environmental concern. It is fundamentally an economic and public health issue, and at its heart lies an inter-generational responsibility. Pakistan’s youth and next generation are not a peripheral social group; they are the country’s most valuable economic asset. Their health, learning capacity, and productivity will determine…

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LAHORE: The stock market is booming as the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) index is hovering around the 185,000 mark. The index has witnessed a growth of around 67% in the last one year and has achieved a growth of around 2.5% in the last one month. Market and financial analysts are of the opinion that price/earnings (P/E) ratio is around 11 and there is still room for further improvement. Moreover, they think that stock prices are still cheap as per international standards. The duration of current boom is extended and…

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KARACHI: Here is an out-of-the-box economic policy action. Across Pakistan and global financial markets, gold and silver have once again become the centre of investor attention. The recent surge in prices is not driven by speculation alone, but by a convergence of structural forces reshaping global finance. Unprecedented monetary expansion since Covid has diluted fiat currencies, while the Japanese yen has steadily lost its historical safe-haven status. Simultaneously, rising US fiscal stress, fears of dollar weaponisation, and the prospect of competitive devaluation of the Chinese yuan have added to global…

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ISLAMABAD: The Heritage Institute’s Index of Economic Freedom measures 12 economic freedoms: namely, property rights, government integrity, judicial effectiveness, tax burden, government spending, fiscal health, business freedom, labour freedom, monetary freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom, and financial freedom. These 12 institutional and structural pillars can be considered conditions for sustainable economic growth and development in a country. In its 2025 report, the Heritage Institute’s Index of Economic Freedom classified Pakistan as a “repressed” economy, ranking it 150th out of 184 economies, with a score of 49.1 out of 100. The…

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