|
| March 03, 2008 | Monday | Safar 24, 1429 |
Coming out of the woods
 In an otherwise very uncomfortable economic scenario, a redeeming feature is the reconciliatory approach of all major political parties thrown up by the electorate on the February 18....
|
|
Challenges for the new government
 The new government’s economic managers may hold the key to its success or failure. Inflation, energy crisis, and stagnant exports would need immediate attention. While there is a tendency to look...
|
Economic agenda: taking businessmen on board
 CORPORATE Pakistan has found the outcome of elections 2008 somewhat unsettling. Many business leaders were still in the process of digesting the popular mandate. Commenting on the outcome of the polls they dressed their disappointment in a veil of ‘surprise’....
|
|
Cotton crisis and rural poverty
 Cotton is one of the four major crops in Pakistan. The other three are wheat, sugar cane and rice. Cotton accounts for 8.6 per cent of the value added in agriculture and 1.8...
|
|
|
||
Encouraging horticulture in NWFP
 IN spite of immense potentials for horticulture, the area under fruits in the NWFP has not been increased because of lack of incentives and limited technological advancement made so far in this field....
|
|
Test flight on coconut oil bio-fuel
 A BOEING 747 flew from London’s Heathrow to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to conduct the test flight which was partially fueled with a bio-fuel mixture of coconut and babassu oil in one of its four main fuel tanks....
|
|
||
Can rice export be reduced?
 SOME people are demanding an end to the State Bank’s financing facilities to rice exporters and ban on rice exports because of current increase in rice prices....
|
|
Advances in good corporate governance agenda
 WITH the recent signing of an agreement between the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank subsidiary, the chant of encouraging good governance practices has certainly hit an octave note....
|
|
|
||
|
Viability of the Thar coal mining company
On February 8, the President gave a fresh go-ahead signal to embark on exploiting potential of huge Thar coal (lignite) resources for power generation, this time taking the government of Sindh on board on the issue of tariff....
|
|
Economics and voter rationality
 Usually, it is the impact of politics that is gauged on economic outcomes. Elections 2008 in Pakistan demonstrate the impact of economics on politics and electoral outcomes....
|
|
|
||
World commodities
 Gold/platinum...
|
|
Anti-dumping law and Tariff Commission
 The WTO Agreement focuses on liberalisation and openness in trade whereby trade regulatory and protectionist measures have been eliminated. Trade defence mechanisms have been included as a balancing factor to protect domestic producers from the unfair trading practices of foreign competitors....
|
|
|
||
Focus shifts to agri reforms
 THE farm sector in India has been undergoing a crisis for the last several years, but with elections round the corner, politicians from both the ruling dispensation and the opposition parties...
|
|
Distortions in tax system
The continuous fiscal and current account deficits have forced the policy makers to rely more and more on external and internal borrowings. The new elected government is going to inherit this legacy from the so-called experts-cum-technocrats....
|
|
|
||
|
Political stability and economic growth
The verdict of the electorate on February 18 is clear and the options for durable coalition at the centre and in the provinces are rather obvious....
|
|
Electricity from molasses
 The Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Shakarganj Sugar Mill for the round-the-year supply of seven megawatts of electricity per day....
|
|
|
||
Visible slow-down signals
 The UK GDP data released the other day has indicated that British economy has started slowing down with growth projections for the current year hovering around 1.7...
|
|
KSE: time for a growth strategy
 The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) is now at a defining moment in its history. Over the last five years, it has seen its market capitalisation soar above $60 billion and, it...
|
|
|
||
Creating an agricultural Noah’s Ark
 A VAST underground vault constructed to store millions of seeds from around the world which opened on February 26 in a mountain on a remote island near the Arctic Ocean is...
|
|
Stocks settle at 14,934 after crossing coveted level of 15,000
 THE share market last week failed to establish any set price pattern as investors played on both sides of the fence indulging in alternate bouts of buying and selling followed by positive and negative news on the political front....
|
|
|
||
Dollar and euro dominate rupee
 The dollar and euro continued to dominate the rupee in the local currency market this week. According to most analysts, sharply deteriorating trade and payment deficit and political uncertainty is a leading factor behind the dollars surge in the market....
|
|
Deposits of scheduled banks higher by Rs5.58 billion
On February 27, the State Bank of Pakistan sold Rs6.29 billion worth of 6 month treasury bills at 9.8024 per cent, (against 9.7269 per cent at the previous auction), Rs25.69...
|
|
|
||
Prices of essentials rise after pressure on supplies
 THE trading on the Karachi commodity markets last week witnessed another price flare-up as pressure on supplies continued to inspire panic buying both from retailers and wholesalers....
|
|
|
|
|
||
