KARACHI: Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi is disappointed with his team?s performance in group matches of the World Twenty20 championship in the West In

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BERLIN: Bayern Munich?s veteran goalkeeper Hans-Joerg Butt is set to be handed a shock World Cup call-up when Joachim Loew names his World Cup squad o

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LAHORE

WITH the demand for IT professionals on the rise globally, Punjab can produce IT manpower if it can fine-tune students who qualify from

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PESHAWAR: Peshawar police held two alleged suicide bombers along with explosives-filled jackets.

According to police sources, police raided a house the other day in Peshawar and apprehended two alleged suicide bombers along with jackets to be used in carrying out attacks.

The alleged bombers, aged between 17 and 19, belong to tribal areas, police sources added.

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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: England won the toss and Put Pakistan into bat in their first Super Eights match here at the Kensington Oval on Thursday.

Ryan Sidebottom keeps his place. For Pakistan, Mohammad Asif has returned.

Teams
Pakistan: Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal (wk), Shahid Afridi (captain), Abdul Razzaq, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal.

England: Michael Lumb, Craig Kieswetter, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood (captain), Eoin Morgan, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.

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Islamabad

Taking charge as the new Erra deputy chairman, Lieutenant General Haroon Aslam expressed his determination to accomplish the task ass

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LONDON: Manchester United?s failure to lift the Premier League title will not agonise boss Alex Ferguson over where he went wrong.

Speaking at

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Pakistan News

LAHORE: All Pakistan CNG Association will no more cooperate with the government in its energy conservation drive and has decided to not to close CNG stations in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

While decision about closing stations in Sindh and Balochistan will be taken on Monday.

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KARACHI: Pakistan’’s foreign exchange reserves rose to $15.04 billion in the week ending on April 30 from $14.98 billion the previous week, the central bank said on Thursday.

Reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) rose to $11.18 billion from $11.06 billion a week earlier, while those held by commercial banks eased to $3.86 billion from $3.92 billion, said the SBP’’s chief spokesman, Syed Wasimuddin.

“This includes $188 million received from the United States last week,” said Wasimuddin.

The U.S. embassy said on Tuesday it had released $656 million to Pakistan from its so-called coalition support fund for costs incurred last year in fighting Islamist militants, with $188 million transfered last week and another $468 million on Monday.

The $468 million would be reflected in next week’’s foreign exchange reserve data, said Wasimuddin.

Pakistan’’s foreign reserves hit a record high of $16.5 billion in October 2007 but fell steadily to $6.6 billion by November 2008, largely because of a soaring import bill.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) emergency loan package of $7.6 billion agreed to in November 2008 helped avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves.

The IMF increased the loan to $11.3 billion in July and the central bank received a fourth tranche of $1.2 billion on Dec. 28.

The IMF board is expected to meet in mid-May to discuss the approval of the delayed fifth tranche of about $1.2 billion for the cash-strapped U.S. ally, which is battling an Islamist insurgency in its northwest.

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ISLAMABAD: The United Nations in its annual report ”Economic and Social Survey of Asia and Pacific” forecasted Pakistan’’s economic growth at 3.2 per cent during the current financial year.

The survey, an annual publication of Economic and Social Commission on Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) was launched on Thursday in different countries including in Pakistan by former Advisor to Finance Ministry and Director General NUST Business School, Dr. Ashfaq Hassan Khan here on Thursday.

The report said that Pakistan’’s real GDP would grow at 3.2 percent in 2009-10 against the growth of 2.0 in 2008-09 and 4.1 percent in 2007-08.

The survey report has projected country’’s inflation at 12 percent during the current financial year against the inflation of 20.8 percent last year and 12 percent in 2007-08, showing a large decrease as compared to the inflation last year.

Regarding savings and investments, ESCAP has forecasted country’’s gross savings growth at 15.1 percent against 14.4 percent in 2008-09 and 13.4 percent in 2007-08.

On the other hand, the gross investments would grow at 18.5 percent during the year against 19.8 during last year and 21.6 percent during 2007-08, it predicted.

The survey said that Pakistan’’s economy has been affected not just by the global economic crisis but also by the declining security situation and intensification of conflict linked to terrorism.

The industry, especially large-scale manufacturing suffered the worst due to drop in international demand while also having to cope with acute shortages of electricity.

Improved performance of the service sector offset it to some extent, which grew 3.6 percent during the year, it said adding that a rebound was witnessed in agriculture due to bumper wheat crop.

The report says that anticipated recovery is expected to be supported by the restocking of inventories and a small recovery in exports as the incipient recovery in major economies gather pace.

The large-scale manufacturing sector, which contracted in 2009, is projected to register positive growth during this year.

The report says that Pakistan witnessed a contraction in both of its exports and imports adding that global economic crisis led to a decline in exports by 6 percent while imports contracted at a much faster rate by 11 per cent due to lower domestic demand coupled with massive fall in international oil prices.

Depreciation of domestic currency also played a role in containing imports.

According to the report, strong growth momentum in the workers” remittances continued in 2009 and with over 20 per cent increase the remittances stood at $7.8 billion.

All these developments helped in bringing significant improvement in the current account balance, where deficit of 8.4 per cent of GDP in 2008 was reduced to 5.3 of GDP in 2009.

However, it said that due to global economic slowdown and political and security uncertainties, there was a slackening of capital inflows due o lower FDI inflows, higher portfolio outflows, lower disbursements of loan and higher amortization payments.

The report said that the fiscal deficit has been rising in recent year, which stood at 7.6 percent of GDP in 2008.

The report said that the fiscal performance improved substantially in 2009 due to more stringent fiscal policy while the budget deficit came down to 5.2 per cent of GDP.

It said that performance at revenue side was not very encouraging adding that the government needs to improve tax base and raise the very low tax-to-GDP ration in order to reduce the fiscal deficit to sustainable levels.

The report said that a sustained high and inclusive economic growth was needed for rapid poverty reduction.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Ashfaq Hassan said that the recent global economic crisis has given a clear message that there was a need to strike a balance between consumer-based economy and export oriented economy to ensure robust economic growth.

He said that the Asia Pacific became the victim of global financial crisis as countries in this region were having export oriented economic.

He also stressed the need for reducing the fiscal deficit, which would enable government not to borrow money from domestic or international sources and in the long run would help develop sustainable economy.

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