World

Gross domestic product expanded 5.2 percent, as China worked to export more to make up for weak demand, high debt and a steep property contraction at home. Car production set records in China last year. Restaurants and hotels were increasingly full. Construction of new factories surged. Yet China’s economic strengths conceal weaknesses. Deep discounts helped drive car sales, particularly for electric cars. Diners and travelers chose cheaper dishes and less expensive hotels. Many factories ran at half capacity or less because of weak demand inside China, and are working to export more to make up for it. China’s economy grew 5.2 percent last year as it rebounded from nearly three years of stringent “zero Covid” pandemic control measures, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics ...

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni expressed admiration for the substantial contributions of Indian returnees to his country's economic development, during the 19th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Kampala. Commending their achievements, he highlighted the 900 factories built by Indian returnees since their arrival. "I was asking people how many factories have been built by our Indian returnees. They told me about the 900 factories that they had built since they came back.", he said. Reflecting on Uganda's history, especially the expulsion of Asians, mainly Indian Ugandans, during Idi Amin's regime, President Museveni openly acknowledged the government's past mistakes. He highlighted the adverse consequences of Amin's actions, including the economic impact on Uganda. Notably, Ind...

Pakistan remained exceedingly vulnerable to climate change and faced rates of warming considerably above the global average, as per the report. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that Pakistan faced one of the worst economic crises in its history in 2023, with poverty, inflation and unemployment soaring, jeopardising millions of people's rights to health, food and an adequate standard of living, Dawn newspaper reported. A dark street in a commercial area in Lahore, Pakistan.(Bloomberg)A dark street in a commercial area in Lahore, Pakistan.(Bloomberg)In its 740-page 'World Report 2024', made available on Friday, the HRW reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries, and observed that the insistence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on austerity and the removal of s...

Election season is approaching and understandably there is a need to assess performance—economic and political. For political performance, the outcome of the 2024 election is not known. But we can compare the economic performance of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government with that of the previous Congress dispensation during the high growth period from 2004 to 2013. Such a comparison is useful to understand, evaluate, and compare economic policies and their outcomes on economic growth. Historically, economies like India and China operated like isolated islands. But starting with the 1991 economic reforms, successive Indian governments have followed a consistent reform policy (with some important failures). A key outcome of the reforms process, both in India and China, has the increased i...

Pakistan's political and military leaders on Friday moved to de-escalate tensions with Iran after this week's deadly airstrikes by Tehran and Islamabad that killed at least 11 people and marked a significant escalation in fraught relations between the neighbors. The decision was apparently reached at a meeting of Pakistan's National Security Committee, chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar on his return home after cutting short his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Pakistan's powerful army chief Gen. Asim Munir attended the meeting. A statement after the meeting said the leadership discussed the situation following the Iranian airstrikes and praised the “professional, calibrated and proportionate response" by Pakistan's military. The committ...

Former diplomats, intellectuals and international relations experts on Thursday said that Pakistan and Iran should put behind the bitter phase and move forward as escalation is not good for them and the region, hours after nine persons were killed in Islamabad's counter-strike in the neighbouring country. This was the crux of the interviews and comments of experts while talking to the PTI or expressing their views on various media outlets in the wake of Pakistan's "precision military strikes" against what it called "terrorist hideouts" in Iran's Siestan-Balochistan province in the wee hours on Thursday.The attack was seen as retaliation to Iranian missile and drone attacks on Tuesday which targeted two bases of the Sunni Baloch militant group 'Jaish al-Adl' in Pakistan's unruly Balochi...

The Bangladesh Bank has revised down Bangladesh’s economic growth target to 6.5 percent from 7.5 percent for the fiscal year 2023-24. While unveiling Bangladesh Bank’s monetary policy statement (MPS), its Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder on Wednesday said in Dhaka that Bangladesh’s economic outlook remains positive amid the economic challenges. The Bangladesh Bank has revised down Bangladesh’s economic growth target to 6.5 percent from 7.5 percent for the fiscal year 2023-24. While unveiling Bangladesh Bank’s monetary policy statement (MPS), its Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder on Wednesday said in Dhaka that Bangladesh’s economic outlook remains positive amid the economic challenges. However, the Bangladesh Bank’s growth target revision came after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revi...