Category: bussines

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday announced its decision to maintain the existing policy rate unchanged at 11%. This marks the third straight MPC meeting where the central bank has extended a pause in monetary easing as policymakers weighed inflation risks from flood-hit crops against a fragile economic recovery. “This temporary yet significant flood-induced supply shock, particularly to the crop sector, may push up headline inflation and the current account deficit from earlier expectation in FY26,” the central bank said in its…

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MADRID: Officials from the United States and China meet in Madrid on Sunday to hash over longstanding trade irritants, a looming divestiture deadline for Chinese short video app TikTok and demands by Washington that G7 and European allies impose tariffs on China to halt its purchases of Russian oil. The talks in the Spanish capital mark the fourth time in four months that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in European cities to try to keep a…

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The United States on Friday placed 32 companies and organisations — including firms in India, Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates — on its trade blacklist, according to a US government notice. The move penalises two Chinese firms accused of obtaining US chipmaking equipment for China’s top semiconductor maker, SMIC. GMC Semiconductor Technology (Wuxi) Co and Jicun Semiconductor Technology were placed on the list, formally known as the Entity List, for acquiring equipment for SMIC Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Corp and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corporation, the Federal…

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The federal government has lifted the four-year ban on new domestic gas connections, announcing that pending and fresh applicants will now be provided with re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) instead of local gas. Addressing a press conference alongside Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik said that the decision had been taken by the federal cabinet under the instructions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to ease public hardships. Malik said the ban, imposed in 2021, had forced residents of new housing societies and apartments…

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ISLAMABAD: The federal government has announced plans to provide relief in electricity bills for residents of flood-affected areas, with several tax waivers under active consideration. Federal Minister for Food Security Rana Tanveer Hussain, in remarks to Geo News, said that taxes on the electricity bills of households in flood-hit regions would be waived immediately. He explained that while the federal government would grant relief on electricity charges, provincial governments would be responsible for waiving land revenue. The minister added that inflated bills already printed in flood-affected areas would also be reviewed.…

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Torrential rains and extensive flooding in basmati-producing regions of India and Pakistan have sparked concerns over reduced output of the premium grain, pushing prices upward amid expectations of tighter supplies. India and Pakistan exclusively grow aromatic basmati rice, which sells for nearly twice the price of regular varieties and is primarily imported by Britain, the Middle East, and the United States. Floods have severely affected the basmati rice crop, but with waters now receding, losses are expected to remain limited provided there is no additional rainfall, said Nitin Gupta, senior…

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday signed a landmark agreement with United States Strategic Metals (USSM), paving the way for an initial $500 million investment in the country’s critical minerals sector, according to the Prime Minister’s Office. The commitment follows the signing of two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) at the Prime Minister’s House during the visit of a high-level US delegation, which included representatives from USSM and Mota-Engil, a global mining and infrastructure group. The agreements cover cooperation in the development and processing of critical minerals, including rare earth elements (REEs), as…

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US President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on India could reduce the country’s gross domestic product by half a per cent this year, the nation’s Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Monday. “Depending upon how long it lasts even in this financial year, it may translate into a GDP impact of somewhere between 0.5% to 0.6%,” he told the broadcaster. Trump, who is seeking to broker an end to the Ukraine conflict, has said India’s oil imports are helping fund Moscow’s war effort and…

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Postal traffic to the United States plunged more than 80% following Washington’s imposition of new tariffs, with 88 operators worldwide fully or partially suspending services, the Universal Postal Union said on Saturday. The UPU, the United Nations’ postal cooperation agency, is working on “the rapid development of a new technical solution that will help get mail moving to the United States again”, its director general Masahiko Metoki said in a statement. US President Donald Trump’s administration announced in late July that it was abolishing a tax exemption on small packages…

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US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order allowing tariff exemptions, starting Monday, for trade partners that secure deals covering metals, chemicals and pharmaceutical compounds. Trump has spent his first seven months in office building up massive tariff increases to reorder the global trading system, cut US trade deficits and extract concessions from trading partner countries in negotiations. His latest order identifies more than 45 categories for zero import tariffs from “aligned partners” who clinch framework pacts to cut Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs and duties imposed under the Section 232…

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