National forex reserves rise to $11.64b
KARACHI: National exchange reserves mounted to $11.64 billion, State Bank of Pakistan said Thursday.According to SBP spokesman, the national forex reserves bulged by $128.3 million and forex reserves with the central bank stand at $8.30 billion.The central bank spokesman said the bank achieved its target of deal with International Monetary Fund, under which the SBP was to take its reserves to $8 billion by June 30, 2009.
WB approves $135 mln loan for Pakistan
WASHINGTON: The World Bank (WB) has given approval, allowing for Pakistan the aid of dollar 135 million as loan to be spent on two separate projects including the anti-polio drive and social welfare programs, Geo news reported early on Friday.This was stated in a statement released from WB here.
KSE-100 Index sheds 12 points at weekend
KARACHI: The benchmark KSE-100 Index at Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) dipped by 12 points to close at 7,039 on Friday.The stock market began its today’s journey in green territory but later selling in cement and banking scrips eroded the early hour gains and the major Index closed in the red zone.The market turnover stood at 90 million shares today.OGDC was today’s star performer in terms of volume which gained paisas 60 to close at Rs74.90.KSE-30 Index finished the day 42 points down to 7,450.
Over Rs80 bln B’stan budget 2009-10 to be presented tomorrow
QUETTA: The PPP-led Balochistan’s coalition government will announce tomorrow its second annual budget for the fiscal year 2009-10 envisaging a total volume amounting to over Rs80 billion with Rs20 billion development budget. As many as Rs20 billion would be allocated for annual development programmes, while Balochistan would also get Rs50 billion as annual development programmes from the federal government. Rs21 billion of development programmes which had not been released by the federal government which had been set in the outgoing fiscal budget for Balochistan. The federal government had already announced to release the Rs21 billion for the cash-strapped Balochistan. Balochistan would get Rs3 billion for Quetta development package, Rs3 billion as people’s programme, and Rs3 billion for overcoming budget deficit from the federal government.
Oil prices dip after jump above 72 dollars
NEW YORK: Oil prices fell below 70 dollars on profit-taking Friday after a brief rally spurred by hopes that the worst may be over for the ailing global economy. Early gains were also supported by continuing attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria and concerns about political developments in Iran, OPEC's second largest producer, following disputed presidential elections there. New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, shed 1.82 dollars from Thursday's close to end at 69.55 dollars a barrel after climbing past 72 dollars. In London trade, Brent North Sea crude for August delivery dropped 1.87 dollars to 69.19 dollars per barrel. Traders said prices came under pressure ahead of Monday's expiry of the New York futures July contract. "It put downward pressure into the close," said Phil Flynn of Alaron Trading.Positive US data and stronger demand has driven the market in recent days, fueled also by unrest in key oil producing nations. "We will be going into the weekend with some legitimate geopolitical concerns," said Olivier Jakob, analyst at Swiss-based research group Petromatrix. "We will need to keep an Iranian risk premium for the weekend and to it we will add a Nigerian risk premium," he added. Since the recession hit the global economy, concerns about geopolitical issues have rarely featured as a market driver, analysts at JPMorgan Commodity Research said in a note to clients.
Balochistan budget for next fiscal year today
QUETTA: The “tax-free” Balochistan budget for the next financial year 2009-2010 is scheduled to be presented in the provincial assembly today (Saturday). Provincial Minister for Finance Mir Asim Kurd alias Gailu would present the budget in the assembly.Officials of the provincial financial department said the volume of the next provincial budget would be around Rs 80 billion with an estimated deficit of around Rs 8 billion. The allocations for the development activities in the next fiscal year budget are estimated at around Rs 51 billion with around Rs 21 billion to be made for the non-development activities.The official sources said that an increase of 15 percent in the salaries of civil servants will be made in the budget in accordance with the raise announced by the federal government for the employees in the federal budget for the next year recently.The salaries and raise in the provincial government employees’ wages would cost around Rs 3 billion in the budget as presently there is a total strength of 165,000 employees in the province. The strength of the employees would be increased to 170,000 in the next financial year. Some 4,000 new vacancies would be created in education, health and police departments in the next financial year budget.The sources said that special focus would be on the agriculture, education and health sectors in the next year budget. The federal government has announced to provide Rs 6 billion for the Quetta Package and Peoples programme. Similarly, Rs 3 billion would also be provided for meeting the financial deficit by the federal government, the sources maintained.The sources disclosed that the provincial government achieved the target set for the tax collection for the current financial year making it the only province to do so. Under this head, the province got Rs 3.6 billion.The sources further said that Balochistan did not get Rs 10 billion out of the total Rs 51 billion that had to be received from the Federation. The sources disclosed that the province saved Rs 1.5 billion showing better financial discipline during the current financial year.Moreover, the province was also able to overcome the deficit of over Rs 8 billion in the current financial year budget, which was a great achievement on part of the present provincial government.
