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March, 21(Agencies) --US Dollar pinned near a five-week low besides regaining some ground on Tuesday as traders tiptoed back into riskier assets after UBS’ state-backed takeover of Credit Suisse allayed some fears of a widespread, systemic banking crisis.Market sentiment remained fragile, however, investors struggled to determine the scale of the ramifications from a sector hit that began with Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse, putting a cap on risk appetite and giving some support to the safe haven dollar.Sterling rose 0.02% to $1.2280, while the euro steadied at $1.0722.The Aussie fell 0.22% to $0.6703. News of UBS’ planned takeover of rival Credit Suisse on Sunday - a shotgun merger engineered by Swiss authorities - gave way to a sma...

March 21, 2023 at 12:43 pm | Economic Affairs

March, 21(Agencies) --Asian stocks were picked up from lows on Tuesday, with the fragile mood and stress in markets following rescue of Credit Suisse stemming selling in bank shares,Traders kept in wondering whether US rate hikes might be finished. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5% in early trade. Australian shares bounced 1.3% from Monday’s four-month trough and the Hang Seng opened 0.7% higher.Japanese markets were closed for a holiday, though Chicago-traded Nikkei futures were in the green. Overnight an early selloff in Europe was reversed and on Wall Street the S&P 500 rose 0.9%.A holiday in Tokyo left Treasuries untraded in Asia. Central bank meetings in Britain and the United States are sche...

March 21, 2023 at 12:42 pm | Economic Affairs

March20 (Agencies) Commemorating Women’s History Month, US Mission Pakistan Deputy Chief of Mission Andrew Schofer on Monday named midwife Neha Mankani as US Mission Pakistan’s 2023 ‘Woman of Courage’. Women's History Month, an annual declared month, highlights the contributions of women to events in history. Women's History Month was first celebrated in Santa Rosa, California. Mankani, an alumna of the US government-funded Fulbright Program, established the Mama Baby Fund in 2019 to support new mothers. She with her team served pregnant women and babies in need in Sindh Province. She also went to meet internally displaced people camps to provide prenatal care and kits. “Neha exemplifies leadership, courage, and strength...

March 20, 2023 at 7:44 pm | Economic Affairs

March20(Agencies) Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar yesterday expressed the resolve of the present government to deal with the ongoing economic crisis in the country. Minister, in a meeting with Asmaa Resmouki, President International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), stressed the need for high quality corporate reporting based on international standards. Minister also extended felicitations on becoming the first Muslim lady President of IFAC. Resouki became IFAC president in Nov, 2022. Prior to becoming President, she was appointed Deputy President IFAC in Nov 2020 after serving the IFAC board since Nov, 2017. Dar was of the view that high quality corporate reporting would help mobilizing financial resources and help in reducing cor...

March 20, 2023 at 7:40 pm | Economic Affairs

March20 (Agencies) US Ambassador Donald Blome has said that the top priorities of her government is to further promote economic growth in Pakistan, besides enhancing trade and investment between the United States and Pakistan. “The US is Pakistan’s largest export market. We are seeing more and more U.S. investment come to Pakistan. There is still room to grow and entrepreneurs like you are central to that effort,” said US Ambassador Donald Blome, at the concluding ceremony of the Two-Day Expo event with the title“US-Pakistan Innovation Expo”. The expo was organized with the aim to provide a platform for established start-ups to showcase their business ideas and prototypes and network with potential US and Pakistani venture....

March 20, 2023 at 7:05 pm | Economic Affairs

March20 (Agencies) Since Pakistan has recently suffered unprecedented deluge, the government of Japan has provided an additional 5.58 million USD to strengthen weather forecasting in Pakistan. In its ongoing scheme to install ‘Weather Surveillance Radar’, Tokyo aims to cover eighty percent of the area to give benefit to approximately 90 percent of the whole population of the country. Multan, also famous as one of the oldest city, would get an increase of a grant aid for “the Project for Installation of Weather Surveillance Radar” from 14.99 million USD to 20.57 million USD. Japan has already provided assistance for installation of six weather radars in Karachi, federal capital, Dera Ismail Khan, Rahim Yar Khan and two project...

March 20, 2023 at 7:02 pm | Economic Affairs

March19 ( Agencies) In a bid to ensure transparency, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to upgrade the Automated Sales Tax e-Refund System (FASTER). The purpose of upgradation is to deal the complaints and to ensure transparency in the processing of sales tax refunds . The FBR has to makealterations in FASTER system after series of sessions with the stakeholders. It had to take care of the value addition check and local supplies for filing of Annex-H .It was suggested by FBR thatInadmissible inputs shall not be allowed during processing of refunds through FASTER. It was also asked to take care Input tax adjustment as it shall not be allowed to the manufacturers of these sectors on the goods. The negative list of such u...

March 20, 2023 at 9:24 am | Economic Affairs

March 19(Agencies) Though the government currently facing toughtime in its deal with IMF, yet it has consumed $876 million on import of2.2 million metric tonnes wheat during the first 8 months of the current financial year. This amount was spent with an aim to deal the local demand because low domestic wheat production in the country. The data available to this organization, compiled by the government department, revealed that the USD starving country has spent 876 million on import of 2,202,972 metric tones wheat from different countries. The idea was avoid shortage of local wheat production in the country. Pakistan had produced 27 million tons wheat last season which was almost 8 percent above than outgoing year. However, this b...

March 20, 2023 at 9:23 am | Economic Affairs

March 19 ( Agencies) In a significant development, The ECC has given a go ahead for the supply of indigenous gas to fertilizer plants. This approval would cater the Urea requirements especially in the upcoming Kharif crops season. Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar chaired the meeting of the ECC of the Cabinet.Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan, Federal Minister for Industries and Production Syed Murtaza Mahmud, Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi MNA/Ex-PM, SAPM on Finance Tariq Bajwa, SAPM on Revenue Tariq Mehmood Pasha, SAPM on Government Effectiveness Dr. Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan, Federal Secretaries and other senior officers attended the meeting. The concerned ministry presented detail...

March 20, 2023 at 9:21 am | Economic Affairs

March 19 (Agencies) Despite the economic crunch, the present government has started taking interest to provide a relief to redress garment sector SMEs liquidity crisis.In a major development, Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar has given nod to the apparel exporters to resolvethe issue of liquidity crunch faced by the SMEs. It would not be out of place to mention here that blockage of sales tax refundshas become a serious concerns for the exporters. The Ministry of Commerce also attended an important session along with Defence Minister Khawaja Aasif and TDAP Director General Shahzad Ahmed Khan in this regard. The exporters from all industrial export-oriented sectors shared their fast increasing problems in the industry. ...

March 20, 2023 at 9:16 am | Economic Affairs

March19 (Agencies) ISLAMABAD -Since the health ministry assured to provide maximum relief in health sector, it has decided to demand Rs.48.06 billion development funds specifically for 'Prime Minister Sehat Card and 'Hepatitis-C' for next financial year. In order to meet requirements, The ministry has demanded comparatively triple amount as compared to the last year, according to the available figures. It has also included more development projects of health sector amounting Rs 348billion in its proposed Public Sector Development Program. The ministry after thorough deliberation also included over two dozen new schemes for the next financial year. The Prime Minister’s Hepatitis-C program worth of Rs74.36 billion was proposed ...

March 20, 2023 at 8:59 am | Economic Affairs

March 19,2023Beijing(EA Report)The Third Round of Pakistan-China Bilateral Political Consultations (BPC) was held in Beijing on 18 March 2023. Foreign Secretary Dr. Asad Majeed Khan led the Pakistan delegation while the Chinese side was led by Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong. BPC is a regular institutional mechanism between Pakistan and China.The two sides reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations, and agreed to expand and reinforce political and security cooperation, bilateral trade, economic and financial cooperation, cultural exchanges, tourism, and people-to-people ties. Pakistan and China will also enhance high level engagements and dialogue mechanisms and make the channels of communication even more robust. Noting ...

March 19, 2023 at 3:45 pm | Economic Affairs

March17(Agencies) -- China’s central bank made a move by pumping liquidity into the banking system to respond to rising pressures in the domestic banking industry and growing risks abroad, a state-owned Chinese newspaper said on Saturday.The move is being marked as “timely” in addition of the central bank on Friday reduced the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves for the first time this year to support a nascent recovery in the world’s second-biggest economy. The cut in the reserve ratio came earlier than financial markets had anticipated.Global markets this week have been hit by the collapse of U.S. lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and uncertainty over Credit Suisse Group AG, which tapped $54 billion in central...

March 19, 2023 at 9:44 am | Economic Affairs

March17,2023Georgia(Agencies) In order to boost US-Pakistan trade ties, the Georgia Assembly yesterday adopted a resolution to acknowledge Sindh and Georgia as twin states.The resolution, which would help honouring the province ofSindh [Located in the Southeastern region of Pakistan] as a sister state with Georgia, was passed with the aim to contribute to US-Pakistan in trade ties and business relations.Mr. Farooq Mughal, the first Pakistani Muslim American elected to theGeorgia House of Representatives played a key role in getting the support of US government and Georgia House of Representatives members for unanimously adopting the resolution.The motion, adopted with the strenuous endeavours of Mr. Farooq Mughal President of the Georgia C...

March 17, 2023 at 10:54 pm | Economic Affairs

March17(Agencies) –Pakistan is considering a big investment in metal refining plants, fertilizer production plants, food processing plants including dry milk production and meat processing. “For a future investment, the country has targeted projects to invest in metal refining plants, fertilizer production plants, food processing plants,” said Federal Minister Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar, at ‘Meet and Greet session’ with the media at TDAP HQ in Karachi. About China’s investment in CPEC, the Minister informed that Shandong [Eastern Province of China] is thinking of relocating its labour-intensive industries to Pakistan to reduce production cost. Minister appreciated the efforts of former President Asif Ali Zardari for in...

March 17, 2023 at 10:49 pm | Economic Affairs

Senior officials from Australia and Pakistan discuss the strength of bilateral relations March17,2023 (EA Report) – Agreeing to enhance cooperation in multilateral settings, Pakistan has briefed Australia about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and the grave and systematic violations of human rights in IIOJK.The dignitaries from both sides exchanged views on bilateral cooperation the other day [Thursday] in a Senior Officials Talks (SOTs) held in Islamabad. Additional Foreign Secretary (Asia-Pacific) Mumtaz Zahra Baloch represented the Pakistan side, the Australian side was led by First Assistant Secretary for North and South Asia, Gary Cowan in the 8th Session of SOTs.Both sides have agreed to continue cooperation in politica...

March 17, 2023 at 10:46 pm | Economic Affairs