Asia

Islamabad, Pakistan: Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau accused big fish claiming money-laundering using fake accounts.The alleged fake accounts were by the names, ‘falooda wala’, ‘chhabri wala’ and ‘papar wala’ etc., reported Pakistan’s The News International citing National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman and Justice (R) Javedax Iqbal. “The learned accountability courts in which NAB had filed references against accused persons are the relevant authority to decide about the innocence of any accused person as per law,” Iqbal said. Iqbal mentioned that NAB would carry out its duties in an unbiased manner, without paying heed to any media report or propaganda. The bureau is entrusted to solve cases on logical conclusion and hence the corruption cases will be looked into co...

KARACHI: In the first four months, that is July to October, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) fell by 12 per cent according to the State Bank. In real terms, FDI inflows stood at $662 million during the four-month period compared to $750.6m a year ago. In October, the inflows plunged by 24pc to $223m from $293m in the same month a year ago. The country has been unable to attract significant FDI inflows for more than five years now. Chinese inflows shrink to a quarter of previous year’s level A drop in FDI would be disappointing for the government at a time when it badly needs foreign inflows and is in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for the resumption of loans. The biggest concern could be the inflow from China which fell drastically to $116.5m in July-Oc...

Islamabad, Pakistan: Pakistan is suffering with sever energy crisis. The government has decided to continue the supply of power and fertiliser sectors because of which the gas supply of domestic and industrial sectors will be controlled in winter. The decision was made by the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) during a meeting on Thursday which was chaired by Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar. The CCOE decided supply of gas to “dedicated” consumers, including power and fertiliser plants, would remain stable, The News International reported. The total availability of gas from domestic resources stands at 3,300 mmcfd, while with the import of RLNG, there is another 1,000 mmcfd gas coming into the system, the publication reported, citing official sources. Th...

Karachi, Pakistan: Pakistan currency has recorded its lowest value against US dollar. The drop was recorded because of decline of Rs 1.81 in inter-bank market during intra-bank trading. The local currency depreciated around Rs 1.54 against the greenback to settle at Rs 175.73 on Friday. Cumulatively, the local currency has lost around Rs 5.76 during the last seven days. Analysts believe the demand for the foreign currency stood higher than supply amid an increase in import payments, rising global commodity prices and uncertainty about the resumption of the IMF loan programme. The currency last dropped to a record low of Rs 175.26 against the US currency on October 26.The fall is continuing amid the rising inflation in the country. Prices of daily needs have soared to a new high i...

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the two sides agreed to enhance their bilateral cooperation in line with India's Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) and the ASEAN's Outlook on Indo-Pacific to achieve shared security, prosperity and growth for all in the region. At the East Asia summit in Bangkok in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed setting up the IPOI to conserve and sustainably use the maritime domain and to make meaningful efforts to create a safe and secure maritime domain. Since then, several countries came out in its support. The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is a major stakeholder in the Indo-Pacific. The 10 member countries of ASEAN are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cam...

According to Bank for International Settlements data British banks could be the most vulnerable to an economic meltdown in China UK lenders are the largest creditors to China, the Basle-based group found, with around £187billion of loans tied up in the country at the end of June – up by more than 20 per cent since the end of 2019.  The numbers are likely to worry analysts and the Bank of England amid fears of a debt crisis in China. Concerns about the financial strength of property giant Evergrande, which is struggling under crippling debts of £220billion, have sent shockwaves through China's property sector.  Sinking feeling: UK lenders are the largest creditors to China, with around £187billion of loans tied up in the country at the end of June Two of the bigg...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan in the top ten countries in having largest debt and being eligible for Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). According to International Debt Statistics in 2022, released by the World Bank on Monday, there was a wide divergence in the rate at which external debt accumulated in individual DSSI-eligible countries, including the group’s largest borrowers. The combined external debt stock of the 10 largest DSSI-eligible borrowers (Angola, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Zambia) was $509 billion at end-2020, 12 percent higher than the comparable figure at end-2019 and equivalent to 59 percent of the external debt obligations of all DSSI-eligible countries combined. They also accounted for 65 percent of the end-20...

Islamabad, Pakistan: The US dollar opened at Rs 173.96 in the interbank market and appreciated 34 paisas in early trade, touching the highest ever mark at Rs 174.30, ARY News reported citing forex dealers. The Pakistani rupee is sliding against the US dollar continue despite Pakistan’s government claims to ease the pressure on the exchange rate. Reza Baqir, State Bank of Pakistan’s Governor, had earlier created quite a stir on social media after he defended the rupee depreciation saying it benefited overseas Pakistanis and claimed that inflation in the country was artificial and would be controlled. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the US dollar on Friday closed at 173.96 against the Pakistani rupee, registering appreciation of Rs 0.49 or 0.28 per cent over Thursday’s clo...

Paris, France: Turkye is in the grey list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for not able to check the terror funding.   "Turkey had a mutual evaluation, assessment in late 2019. The report outlined a large number of serious issues regarding Turkey's effort to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Since then, Turkey has made some progress across all areas of concern, however, serious issues remain," said FATF president Dr Marcus Pleyer. "This includes issues concerning supervision, in particular high-risk sectors such as banks, precious stone dealers, and real estate agents," said Pleyer. Three countries were added to the grey list: Jordan, Mali and Turkey. He also took notice of Turkey's clampdown on non-profit organisations (NPOs). "The FATF...

Washington, US: “The Executive Board remains committed to a thorough, objective, and timely review. While the Board has made significant progress in its assessment, it agreed at today’s meeting to request more clarifying details with a view to very soon concluding its consideration of the matter,” the IMF said on Friday. The World Bank started a probe against allegations that its staff had altered an index that measures the ease of doing business. Following the initial investigation, it was found that bank officials pushed the team developing the index to manipulate it in several cases, most notably to improve China’s ranking. Last month, Georgieva said that the authors of the report made “wrong conclusions” and emphasized that she had not engaged in any corruption at her former ...