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| February 04, 2008 | Monday | Muharram 25, 1429 |
Monetary policy: a response to fiscal expansion?
 State Bank Governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar did not mince words while holding fiscal mismanagement during the first half of current fiscal year responsible for the “widening fiscal and external account imbalances’’,...
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Managing the rising budgetary deficit
 AS expected, the government is taking the easiest course to narrow the rising fiscal gap. Apparently, there is consensus on three things to manage risks These include around Rs80 billion cut...
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Growth of housing loans sliding
 After a brief period of robust growth, senior bankers say, the progress and expansion of the country’s nascent primary mortgage finance market is being retarded by a number of factors ranging...
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Farm forestry to develop agriculture
 FORESTRY and agriculture, from land use point of view, share the same objective that is an efficient management of soil in the interest of human being, and they together combine to...
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Need for cultivation of medicinal herbs
 A STUDY of the hitherto available local knowledge of herbal medicines is important, both in socio-economic and scientific perspective. This is to draw upon the rich store of ethno-medicinal knowledge....
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Saving mango from mealy bug
 THE mealy bug is one of the most damaging insect pests severely attacking mango crops throughout the Subcontinent. The insect lays eggs on soil close to mango trees....
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Maize: a rich source of nutrition
 The maize as a food grain plays a significant role throughout the world, particularly in Pakistan and India. Its flour is used in the preparation of nutritious and tasty meals such...
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Fixing coal-based power tariff
 The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has announced recently an indicative levelised tariff for domestic coal-based power generation on a directive of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet....
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Scarce credit for SMEs
 SMEs are the small informal business ventures with low levels of employment and the capital. Most of these family businesses are run by untrained workers, also members of the family....
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Weak monitoring of uplift projects
 SOCIAL uplift suffers in the NWFP because of inefficiency, waste and lack of an effective mechanism for monitoring and evaluation of development projects at grassroots level....
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World commodities
At the recent meeting of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in Vienna, the members decided to keep oil supplies unchanged and have...
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Ambiguities about Islamic banking
Money is only a medium of exchange, a way of defining the value of a thing; it has no value in itself, and therefore should not be allowed to give rise...
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‘Pursing a bad economy’
 THE current fiscal crisis continues to mount since February 2007 because of rising oil subsidy and government’s refusal to accept Nepra’s proposed tariff hike....
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A tougher year for exports to the US
 Like other developing countries, 2008 will prove to be tough year for Pakistani exporters in selling their goods to their American customers following expected fall in demand as a result of recession in the US economy....
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Surge in the current account deficit
 Pakistan is confronted with a record current account deficit of $6.138 billion at the end of the first six months of the current financial year--a 31 per cent increase over the same period last year....
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IMF takes U-turn on fiscal deficits
 Something seems to have gone seriously wrong with the world economy. Could any one have imagined say even in December 2007 that the IMF would be asking governments to spend more...
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Pakistan and the global financial crisis
 The current financial crisis in the West has critically exposed the vulnerabilities of a liberalised financial system. It has also highlighted the challenge that the policymakers and regulators are faced with in an increasingly globalised, ever-changing world....
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Central bank rate unchanged
 INDIA’S central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is generally not known for radical departures from its conservative, government-influenced policies. So even while the US Federal Reserve went in for a rate cut of 1.25...
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Surplus sugar — tackling the reverse crisis
 It may not turn out to be a happy season for the sugar cane growers if the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) holds back payment of more than Rs20 billion to farmers for the current cane crop....
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Stocks improve on higher dividend reports
 AFTER highly volatile performance under the cross-current of positive and negative news, stocks last week extended its recovery drive on renewed selective support on the blue chips counters....
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Rupee-dollar parity under pressure
 Disappointing economic indicators, both nationally as well as internationally, are having its toll on the country’s trade and payment position....
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Scheduled banks’ investment drops by Rs23.916 billion
On January 30, the State Bank of Pakistan received bids worth Rs5 billion for treasury bills against a target of Rs65 billion....
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Wheat price declines, rice, pulses rise
 A SHARP decline in wheat prices featured the last week’s trading on the Karachi wholesale commodity markets as supply position improved significantly partly owing to larger imports and partly to selling by local stock holders....
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