News Update Times

Pakistan (Muhammad Yasir)

The 2023 edition of ACCA Pakistan Leadership Conversation (PLC) kicked off with its inaugural session in Islamabad featuring an impressive line-up of country’s top thought leaders.

With Pakistan’s challenging economic situation in focus, this year’s event theme is ‘Shaping the future in uncertain times: Learn. Adapt. Thrive.’. A number of panel discussions and keynotes were part of the programme in Islamabad’s session addressing today’s key business and economic challenges and proposed solutions for climate action, effective public financial management, development of future-ready talent, and achieving business resilience and economic growth.

ACCA’s head of Pakistan, Assad Hameed Khan, initiated the conversation with his welcome address emphasising on the role of professional accountants in nation building.

 

The Country Head of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Pakistan, Zeeshan Sheikh, also shared his views on ‘Investment Opportunities for Climate Action’. Muhammad Farooq, Senior Joint Secretary (Development) at the Ministry of Climate Change, spoke on the topic ‘National Adaptation Plan: Building Resilience and Reducing Vulnerabilities’ aimed at integrating businesses and government’s efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change.

 

Notable conversation leaders who deliberated at the conference included Bilal Anwar, CEO, NDRMF, Hassan Daud Butt, Ex-CEO, KPBoIT, Ayla Majid, ACCA’s global Vice President, Abid Qayyum Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI, Shehzad Ahmed Malik, President, ICMA Pakistan, Alexa Greenwald, Chief Strategy Officer, TCM, Alia Zafar, Group Head of HR, BoP, Faisal Mushtaq, CEO, TMUC, Ghazanfar Azzam, President and CEO, Mobilink Microfinance Bank, Samia Qamar, Director and Country Lead (People) at S&P Global, and Zuhair Khaliq, Founder and General Partner, TeamUp Ventures.

The aim of the conference is to develop a meaningful framework for growth, facilitate ideation, and shape forward-thinking policy choices and business opportunities, focusing on high-impact actions to contribute to the country’s progress. The leaders will convene again on 22 February in Karachi and then on 23 February in Lahore.

Seed Ventures joined ACCA as this year’s co-organisers. Bank Islami and The Coca-Cola Company were the Strategic Partners. Platinum Partners included SKANS School of Accountancy, U Microfinance Bank, and The Millennium Universal College. Telenor Group Adroit Accountax/ Obox Accounting, National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited, National Disaster Risk Management Fund, Tabani’s School of Accountancy, PAC Group of Colleges and Mirchawala’s Hub of Accountancy supported as Gold Partners. TCM – The Centrum Media joined as Outreach Partner and KPMG and Nutshell Group were the Knowledge Partners.

The event is also supported by the Pakistan Business Council (PBC), Pakistan Stock Exchange, Special Technology Zones Authority, Pakistan Software Houses Association, KP Board of Investment and Trade, The Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business (PBC), ICMA Pakistan, National Incubation Center, Universal Service Fund, Punjab Board of Investment & Trade, Punjab Information Technology Board, Central Power Purchasing Agency, and the CFA Society Pakistan.

ACCA is the world’s leading body for professional accountants, with more than 241,000 fully qualified members and 542,000 future members worldwide. It uses its unrivalled connections across the globe to connect people with fulfilling careers, organizations with the best finance talent, and economies with the ingredients for growth.

 

Lahore  (Nut Desk) The Q4 Global Economic Conditions Survey (GECS) shows signs of steadying, however, many indicators remain weaker than a year ago. The good news is that the GECS Confidence Index bounced slightly for the second consecutive quarter, perhaps reflecting hopes that the worst of the central bank tightening might soon be over and that China might successfully relax its zero-COVID restrictions.

Even so, the Confidence Index remains below its median reading for the period since 2012. There is not much positive news from the other three economic indicators – new orders, capital expenditure (CapEx), and employment. CapEx picked up marginally but remains below the median of the same period; new orders and employment showed a further modest deterioration.

Taken as a whole, the results are consistent with a subdued macro-economic outlook. But the good news is that they do not appear yet to be at levels consistent with an outright global recession in 2023 – even though this is the base case scenario for many economic forecasters.

A good cross-check is provided by the two GECS “Fear” indices, which reflect respondents’ concerns that customers and/or suppliers may go out of business. Reassuringly, these were little changed from the 2022 Q3 survey, despite the sharp rise in borrowing costs and the prospect of negative corporate-earnings growth in 2023.

Assad Hameed Khan, head of ACCA Pakistan, said: “What stands out is the improvement in confidence in developed countries – both Western Europe and North America. The improvement in confidence probably reflects hopes that the Russia–Ukraine situation can be contained, and that there will be sufficient natural gas to see Europe through what now looks increasingly likely to be a mild winter. Looking to the weaker emerging markets (especially Pakistan) however, 2023 could still prove to be a challenging time as reflected in the growing sovereign credit concerns and request to International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance. Moreover, the central bank remains under pressure for continued higher interest rates, monetary tightening and foreign exchange transaction restrictions (further slowing growth).”

Loreal Jiles, vice president of research and thought leadership at IMA, said: “Global confidence has edged up for the second consecutive quarter as cost concerns have eased and with worries about accessing finance and securing prompt payment having not gotten any worse.

“This is something of a surprise given the global rapid tightening of monetary policy by the world’s central banks. The past 12 months have seen the most aggressive tightening of policy in more than 40 years, in pace, scale and breadth. It is strange that this has not yet had a material impact on financing conditions and corporate cash flows. But monetary policy works with long and variable lags, which suggests that this may become more of a problem later in 2023.”

The global economy faces three major uncertainties.

First, have central banks overdone or underdone the amount of tightening that they have imposed?

Second, can China engineer a smooth exit from zero-COVID without additional lockdowns?

And third, will wage pressures ease without a major weakening of the employment market?

One of the unresolved questions from the COVID crisis is whether the combination of early retirement, prolonged ill health, and the move to hybrid working has profoundly altered the balance of power between employers and employees. These changed employment-market dynamics may make it harder for central banks to bring core inflation back to their 2% targets.

The answer to each of these questions will become much clearer as 2023 progresses.

 

Read the full GECS report