Asia

The schedule for Pakistan’s general elections on February 8 has been issued, hours after the Supreme Court quashed a lower court’s decision which could have delayed the much-awaited polls. The election schedule was issued on Friday night by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), within hours after the Supreme Court quashed a decision by the Lahore High Court (LHC) to suspend the appointment of officials from the bureaucracy to oversee the elections in defiance of the apex court’s orders. The LHC’s verdict was issued on a petition filed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — the same party that had called for timely polls in a plea filed in the Supreme Court. Due to the LHC’s order, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Chief Election Commissio...

India's economy outpaced analysts' predictions, registering robust growth of 7.6 per cent in the three months to September compared to a year ago, according to government data released on Thursday. The figure surpassed all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists and exceeded the Reserve Bank of India's projection of 6.5 per cent. Despite challenges like surging inflation and multiple interest rate hikes by the RBI, India retains its position as the fastest-growing major economy globally. The growth is attributed to factors such as strong manufacturing performance, increased consumption, and the Indian government's heightened spending ahead of upcoming elections. Bloomberg cited Madhavi Arora, an economist with Emkay Financial Services, who highlighted the factors driving In...

India's economy grew at a much faster pace than expected in the July-September quarter, helped by government spending and manufacturing. Asia's third-largest economy expanded 7.6 per cent in the September quarter, much faster than the 6.8 per cent forecast in a Reuters poll of economists and the Reserve Bank of India's estimate of 6.5 per cent. COMMENTARY: UPASNA BHARDWAJ, CHIEF ECONOMIST, KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK "The sharp upside surprise to the second-quarter GDP figures is a welcome sign, especially as it comes in the backdrop of a broad-based pickup across most non-agricultural sectors." "We, however, expect the second-half growth to moderate. Having said that, the full year GDP numbers have got a big fillip after today's figures."

Indian economy is likely to continue its strong growth in the quarter to end of September, helped by a solid urban consumption and government spending, outpacing a slowing global economy squeezed by elevated interest rates and higher energy prices.Asia's third-largest economy is expected to grow at 6.8 in the July-September quarter compared with a year earlier, according to a Reuters poll. India will release the quarterly gross domestic product figures at 1200 GMT on Thursday. India's is seen as the bright spot globally as some Western countries are flirting with the possibility of recession, while China, the world's second-largest economy, has slowed down.The poll's consensus forecast is higher than Reserve Bank of India's projection of 6.5 for the quarter, but lower than the 7.8 grow...