The Global Social Network
What good is a currency in global trade if it can not be used to buy products and services from other nations that a country needs? The answer to this question came when Russia said it has accumulated billions of rupees in Indian banks which it can not use. “This is a problem”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in India’s Western state of Goa on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting. “We need to use this money. But for this, these rupees must…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on May 17, 2023 at 1:00pm — 4 Comments
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal" Henry Kissinger
India is emerging as the biggest beneficiary of the Ukraine War and the US efforts to check China's rise. Indian businesses are busting US sanctions to take advantage of the vacuum left in Russia by the exit of western businesses since the start of the Ukraine War. At the same time, the US is rewarding India by promoting it as an alternative to China in the global supply chain. …
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on February 20, 2023 at 5:00pm — 60 Comments
India's foreign exchange reserves are falling rapidly as foreign investors flee and the country's trade and current account deficits widen. More than $267 billion worth of India's external debt of the total $621 billion is due for repayment in the next nine months. This repayment is equivalent to about 44% of India's foreign exchange reserves. This combination of investors'…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on July 10, 2022 at 4:30pm — 29 Comments
Pakistan does not produce tea but it is the most popular beverage among Pakistanis. The country is ranked as its largest importer in the world. In 2020, Pakistan imported $646 million (9% of global tea imports) worth of tea and exported $15.2 million in branded blends of tea such as Tapal Tea. Pakistan tea imports grew 19.8% from 2019 to 2020. …
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on May 21, 2022 at 2:00pm — 8 Comments
India's forex reserves of nearly $640 billion are the 4th largest in the world despite the fact that it runs trade deficits year after year. Other nations among the top 5 with the biggest US dollar reserves are China ($3.4 trillion), Japan ($1.4 trillion) , Switzerland ($1.1 trillion) and Russia ($623 billion). They have all accomplished this feat by running large trade…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on December 9, 2021 at 8:17pm — 35 Comments
Pakistan textile industry is booming with exports soaring 27% to more than $6 billion in the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal year. “We believe that $5 billion investment (in textile industry) in the Musharraf era would be matched in the next six to eight months” says Zubair Motiwala, a leading textile industrialist and chairman of Businessmen Group (BMG), as quoted in the Pakistani …
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on November 17, 2021 at 9:00pm — 53 Comments
Soaring LNG prices are adversely affecting Pakistan's balance of payments and threatening the nation's post-COVID economic recovery. Pakistan's trade deficit has widened to nearly $12 billion in July-September 2021 quarter, up more than 100% from the same period last year. The nation's heavy reliance on expensive imported energy has been the main cause of prior balance of payments crises that have…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on October 12, 2021 at 9:30am — 24 Comments
Ever Given container ship that ran aground and blocked all shipping traffic through the Suez Canal, the busiest waterway in the world, has just been re-floated. The mega cargo ship's captain and the entire crew are Indian, the owners and shipbuilders are Japanese, the operator is German, the insurance company is British, the charterer is Taiwanese and the cargo is Chinese, according to media reports. The ship was reported blown aground by strong winds. …
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on March 28, 2021 at 9:30pm — 6 Comments
Pakistani diaspora sent home $14.2 billion in remittances in July-December 2020, up 25% from the same period in 2019. Pakistanis settled in the United Kingdom and the United States increased their remittances by 52% and 47% respectively in this period, helping Pakistan achieve a record $1.8 billion current account surplus in the first 6 months of the ongoing fiscal year…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on January 16, 2021 at 6:00pm — 13 Comments
Is US-China technology war heating with Huawei ban? Is it part of the larger geopolitical landscape pitting the US as the established superpower against China as the new rising power? Is the fight over Huawei 5G merely a symptom of it? How will it affect global…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on August 4, 2020 at 7:35am — 48 Comments
Intel has recently fired its Indian-American chief engineer Venkata Murthy Renduchintala, who also served as Group President of the Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group (TSCG), for failure to deliver 7 nanometer semiconductor technology on schedule, according to Reuters. …
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on July 29, 2020 at 11:38pm — 31 Comments
Karachi's SAPT (South Asia Port Terminal) Automatic Container Yard and Housing Project is one of 18 winners of "Year in Infrastructure 2019" awards announced by Bentley Systems.…
Added by Riaz Haq on October 28, 2019 at 9:12pm — 6 Comments
Pakistan's garments exports to the United States have jumped 12% in first quarter of 2019 from the same period a year ago, according to USITC Dataweb. This double digit exports growth is being partly attributed to US President Donald's Trump ongoing trade war with China with the US government imposing 10% to 25% tariffs on certain Chinese goods. Pakistani rupee devaluation has also…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on June 13, 2019 at 4:59pm — 14 Comments
Pakistan is battling massive twin deficits, deteriorating foreign currency reserves, low exports, diminishing tax revenues, a weak currency, unsustainable external debt payments, and soaring sovereign debt. This crisis has forced the country to seek IMF (International Monetary Fund) bailout, the 13th such request in Pakistan's 72 year history.…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on April 13, 2019 at 10:00pm — 19 Comments
Remittance inflows from Pakistani diaspora have jumped 21-fold from about $1 billion in year 2000 to $21 billion in 2018, according to the World Bank. In terms of GDP, these inflows have soared nearly 7X from about 1% in year 2000 to 6.9% of GDP in 2018.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's exports have declined from 13.5% of GDP in year 2000 to…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on December 9, 2018 at 2:00pm — 21 Comments
Speaking at a recent Delhi investment conference, Managing Director and Chief Strategist Christopher Wood of CLSA (formerly known as Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia) surprised everyone, by saying that he loves the Pakistan stock market more than any other in Asia, according to …
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on November 24, 2018 at 2:00pm — 4 Comments
Nomura Securities strategists believe Malaysia, Japan and Pakistan are expected to be the top 3 beneficiaries of import substitution triggered by US-China trade war escalation. Nomura's analysis is based on detailed study of 7,705 items which will be subject to tariffs and counter tariffs by US and China if the stand-off continues. Nomura developed two indices as part of its research on the subject: NISI…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on November 21, 2018 at 4:30pm — 7 Comments
The bulk of Pakistan's exports consist of low value commodities like chadar, chawal and chamra (textiles, rice and leather). These exports have declined from about 15% to about 8% of GDP since 2003. Pakistan's trade deficits are growing at an alarming rate as the imports continue to far outstrip exports. This situation is not sustainable. What must Pakistan do to improve it? What can Pakistan do to avoid recurring …
Added by Riaz Haq on September 2, 2018 at 4:00pm — 16 Comments
Every country needs US dollars to import products because the US dollar is the international trade and reserve currency. Only the United States can print dollars; all others must acquire them through exports and capital inflows like investments, remittances and loans. Pakistan has had serious problems in acquiring sufficient amount of dollars for its needs through trade and investments over the last…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on July 31, 2018 at 6:30am — 6 Comments
Pakistan's exports have declined significantly since former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's PMLN party assumed power in 2013. They are down from about $25 billion in 2013-14 to about $20 billion in 2016-17. At the same time, the nation's imports have jumped to $47 billion during this period, widening the trade deficit to a record $27 billion. Overvaluation of the Pakistani currency and CPEC related imports are often cited as a reason for it. The other, probably more important reason, may be…
ContinueAdded by Riaz Haq on May 1, 2018 at 5:30pm — 9 Comments
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Pakistani student enrollment in America's institutions of higher learning rose 16% last year, outpacing the record 12% growth in the number of international students hosted by the country. This puts Pakistan among eight sources in the top 20 countries with the largest increases in US enrollment. India saw the biggest increase at 35%, followed by Ghana 32%, Bangladesh and…
ContinuePosted by Riaz Haq on April 1, 2024 at 5:00pm
Pakistan's agriculture sector GDP grew at a rate of 5.2% in the October-December 2023 quarter, according to the government figures. This is a rare bright spot in the overall national economy that showed just 1% growth during the quarter. Strong performance of the farm sector gives the much needed boost for about …
ContinuePosted by Riaz Haq on March 29, 2024 at 8:00pm
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