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A Roadmap to Diversifying Pakistan’s Exports
December 18, 2025

Pakistan has long struggled to broaden and upgrade its export base toward higher value-added products. This chapter uses the product space framework to identify feasible opportunities for Pakistan to move into more sophisticated exports - an essential step for achieving sustained, long-term economic growth.

Insight

Using the The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) database and employing standard estimations of product and economic complexity, Chaudhry and Andaman (2023) incorporate product space analysis and “proximity” metrics to identify new products Pakistan could export based on its current capabilities. Due to low economic complexity of Pakistan, many of these “nearby” products are not significantly high value-added, meaning that diversifying into such products will not improve Pakistan’s export sophistication by a high margin.

Labels: Economic Growth, Industrial Policy, Pakistan Economy, Trade Policy

posted by S A J Shirazi @ 12/18/2025 01:47:00 PM,

Exports stagnant despite rupee fall
November 16, 2025

Lahore School of Economics study urges shift from price-based fixes to innovation, high-income markets

Shahram Haq

For years, Pakistan has relied on traditional levers like currency depreciation and energy subsidies to stimulate exports. Yet despite multiple rounds of rupee devaluation, the country's export earnings have largely stagnated.

According to an empirical analysis by the Lahore School of Economics, it is not price adjustments but innovation, diversification, and access to high-income markets that truly drive export growth.

Labels: Dr. Azam Chaudhry, Exports, Pakistan, Pakistan Export, Research, Trade Policy, WTO, WTO Chairs

posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11/16/2025 01:50:00 PM,

Factors that Impact Pakistan's Exports: An Empirical Analysis
November 15, 2025

Rethinking Pakistan’s Exports

Dr. Azam Amjad Chaudhry, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Economics, Lahore School of Economics, WTO Chair for Pakistan

Dr. Gul Andaman, Teaching and Research Fellow, Innovation and Technology Center, Lahore School of Economics

Despite multiple currency depreciations, exports have barely grown. Research by Dr. Azam Amjad Chaudhry (Professor & Dean, Faculty of Economics, WTO Chair for Pakistan) and Dr. Gul Andaman (Teaching & Research Fellow, Innovation and Technology Center, Lahore School of Economics) shows that it’s not prices but diversification, innovation, and global demand that truly drive export growth. To move forward, Pakistan must build capabilities, add value, and expand into high-tech, complex products — not just rely on exchange rates.

Read Lahore School, Innovation and Technology Center, Policy Note No. 2/25 here

Labels: Dr. Azam Chaudhry, Exports, Pakistan, Pakistan Export, Research, Trade Policy, WTO, WTO Chairs

posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11/15/2025 04:14:00 PM,