There was a time in Pakistan when a salary meant stability. It meant a predictable month, manageable grocery runs, and a household budget that-while tight-could still breathe. Today, a salary has become something else entirely: a survival ticket that expires before the month ends. Millions of working Pakistanis are not living paycheck to paycheck anymore-they […]
TSMC’s AI Bet and Pakistan’s Blind Spot
The world has entered an era where economic power no longer belongs primarily to those who control oil, ports, or even traditional manufacturing. It belongs to those who control computing. Computers are powered by semiconductors. That is why the most important financial news of early 2026 is not about currency markets or oil prices. It […]
End of Cheap Globalisation
For nearly three decades, Pakistan operated within a global economic order that quietly rewarded its weaknesses. Cheap labour compensated for low productivity, loose regulation substituted for institutional strength, and periodic incentives masked the absence of long-term industrial planning. The assumption was simple and politically convenient: as long as Pakistan remained cost-competitive, global demand would eventually […]
Why IMF Programs Fix Balance Sheets, Not Economies?
Each time Pakistan enters an IMF program, the same sequence unfolds. Foreign exchange reserves stabilise, the current account deficit narrows, the currency becomes less volatile, and policymakers speak of restored confidence. From a macro-financial standpoint, these outcomes signal success. Yet beyond the balance sheet, the economy experienced by households, firms, and workers remains strained. This […]
ROI’s Aftermath: When Pakistan Celebrates Returns and Forgets the Cost
In Pakistan, return on investment has quietly become a closing statement rather than a starting question. Once a project, policy, or transaction shows a positive ROI on paper, celebration follows, press releases are drafted, and responsibility dissolves. What happens next is rarely examined. Yet it is precisely after ROI is declared that the real economic […]
Pakistan’s Export Delusion
By December 2025, Pakistan’s export debate should have matured beyond slogans, press releases, and recycled policy promises. Instead, the conversation remains trapped in a familiar loop. Incentives are announced, concessions are extended, and relief packages are branded as reform. Yet the numbers remain stubborn. Pakistan’s merchandise exports continue to fluctuate in the low USD 30 […]
Pakistan’s New Shadow Economy
Pakistan’s economic debate often revolves around debt, fiscal deficits, inflation, and exchange rate volatility. But these are surface-level symptoms of a deeper structural failure that the state refuses to confront: the documented economy is shrinking, and the undocumented economy is expanding at a pace faster than any formal reform can catch. Money is quietly exiting […]
Pakistan’s Silent Fiscal Leak
Pakistan speaks endlessly about fiscal deficits, IMF programmes and revenue shortfalls, yet one of its largest and most persistent leakages survives untouched: the systematic undervaluation of real estate. This distortion is neither hidden nor complicated. It is embedded in the official valuation regime itself, where DC rates, FBR valuation tables and actual market prices diverge […]
IMF’s Verdict
Pakistan is once again at the centre of an economic debate, but this time the argument has shifted fundamentally. For decades, economists, governments, and the international development community have diagnosed Pakistan’s crisis as a function of debt, inflation, fiscal deficits, political instability, and global shocks. Each downturn brings the same policy responses: new borrowing, subsidy […]
Pakistan’s Biggest Economic Illusion
Pakistan’s recent economic narrative is built around the idea that the country has finally entered a phase of stabilisation. Headline indicators appear encouraging: the IMF review cycle has remained on track, inflation has slowed from its earlier peaks, the Pakistani rupee has avoided the sharp volatility seen in previous years, and the Karachi Stock Exchange […]