profit.com.pk Tuesday, 19 June, 2012

Zardari to visit Russia on20th to attend Int'l Economic Forum Page 02

KARACHI

ISMAIL DILAWAR

AS poor dollar inflows continue to hauntthe economic managers, the country’scurrent account deficit swelled to $ 3.77billion or 1.7 percent of the Gross

Domestic Product (GDP) during the first 11 monthsof outgoing fY12.the economic observers foresee Islamabad optingfor a fresh bailout package of InternationalMonetary fund (IMf) as the country’s externalaccount continues to stay in the red zone partlybecause of marginal foreign aid and investment,huge debt servicing, a negative trade balance andthe resultant heavy export payments.According to central bank, during July-MayfY12 Pakistan’s current account gap surged to $3.77 billion against a negligible deficit of $ 79million the country faced in the correspondingperiod of fY11.With the Pak rupee currently staggering at itslowest level of rs 96 against the greenback, thismanageable deficit, as the economic mangersclaim, is primarily attributable to a massive 44percent increase in the trade deficit.the State Bank reported that the review period sawthe trade balance widening by $ 4.258 billion to $13.880 billion against $ 9.622 billion of last year.While the volume of exports remained almostthe same at $ 22.643 billion against fY11’s $22.696 billion, the imports would cost thecountry $ 36.523 billion compared to last year’s$ 32.318 billion.foreign disbursements of loan and financial aidremained poor and stood at $ 1.699 billion against

$ 1.745 billion the countryhad received in July-MayfY11. the disbursementsmade were of long termnature of which $ 1.619billion came under the head ofproject loans and $ 80 million asa program loans.In same months last year, theprogram loans in Pakistan hadattracted $ 958 million.the foreign investment stands to beanother sad story as the SBP data show thatduring the period under review foreigninvestment in the country nosedived by 62.5percent or over $ 1.113 billion to an alarming levelof $ 678.9 million against $ 1.810 billion thetroubled country had received in fY11.the foreign Portfolio Investment at the country’sequity market contracted by 109.5 percent or $402.8 million to $ 35 million against 367.9 millionof last fiscal year.While the foreign Direct Investment shrank to $756.4 million compared to $ 1.463 billion of fY11,marking a sharp decrease of 48.3 percent.the repayment of external loans, which haveaccumulated to $ 62 billion, is another major drainon the cash-strapped country’s depleting dollarreserves. According to central bank, during thecurrent fiscal year, up to May 18, the dollar-hungrycountry had repaid around $ 2.53 billion toexternal debtors including the IMf.Of the total, $ 809 million were paid in twodifferent installments to the fund under the2008’s $ 11.3 billion but half-paid Stand-ByArrangement (SBA).

However,despite a massivepressure on the country currency and the economy,the economic mangers are taking some comfortfrom the fact that Pakistan’s foreign exchangereserves were being supported by some multilateralinflows and a record increase in workerremittances.While the multilateral inflows, received by thecountry last month, amounted to $94 million, theremittances sent back home by Pakistanis workingabroad are peaking to a historic level.the State Bank figures show that during July-MayfY12 the country received $ 12.069 billionagainst $ 10.096 billion of last year. thegovernment expects the remittances to cross therecord $ 13 billion by the end of June 30, 2012.the economic observers believe that during fY12

the currentaccount deficit

would set in therange of $ 4 billion to

$ 4.5 billion. Inpercentage terms these

estimates account for 1.6 to 1.8percent of the GDP.

the financing of such a huge deficit, theanalysts believe, would remain a majorchallenge for the resource-constrainedgovernment, especially while the foreigninvestment was meager.An under-pressure external account coupled withdomestic reasons like an increased demand for thegreenback from Hajj pilgrims etc, would keep thePak rupee under pressure, viewed the analysts.However, they see some respite coming from apossible dip in international oil prices andmaterialization of the Coalition Support fund asWashington and Islamabad are still committed toremain engaged on the table.“re-entry into IMf program to avert externalaccount crisis,” is the option widely being foreseenby the analysts in the current scenario.-

NEWS DESK

After showing a promising be-ginning, talks between Indiaand Pakistan on confidence-

building measures (CBMs) to give amomentum to the trade have hit aroadblock as larger “political issues”have impacted the movement of nego-tiations and initiatives, according to areport in the Hindu on Monday.

the slowdown in the momentumcomes after the negotiators on bothsides showed promise of taking ‘bigsteps’ to give a major fillip to trade onboth sides, notwithstanding the dif-ferences on various other political

and boundary issues. “things havesuddenly slowed down from the Pak-istan side on the trade issues. Pak-istan negotiators are on the samepage as their Indian counterparts butit seems trade is being linked toprogress on bigger issues such asSiachen and Sir Creek talks. It is un-fortunate but true,” a senior official inthe Commerce and Industry Ministrysaid here.

the case in point is the last-minute decision of the Pakistan sidenot to sign the liberal visa regimeagreement in Islamabad last monthafter everything had been tied up forsuch an event. “Pakistan is yet to re-

vert back to us for Commerce Secre-tary-level talks despite repeated re-minders. there has been littleprogress from their side on expandingthe list of items to be traded throughthe land route despite promises to doit in May itself. the experts’ groupson electricity and petroleum are yet tomeet, leading to re-scheduling ofmeetings twice in the last twomonths. Some tariff barriers need tobe tuned in line with the SAftA(South Asian free trade Area) agree-ment. It is a disappointing situation,”the official said.

Officials said India had removedall restrictions on imports from Pak-

istan but the same was not being doneon the other side of the border. “Weneed to finish negotiations and fi-nalise the expanded list of items to betraded through the land route imme-diately. then, we have to prune thenegative list according to the SAftAagreement requirement to give a newturn to bilateral trade. We are stillwaiting for a response from the Pak-istan side,” the Commerce Ministryofficial said.

experts’ groups of India and Pak-istan on electricity and petroleumwere expected to meeting early thismonth to work out the modalities forexporting power, petrol, diesel and

petrochemicals to Pakistan. However,the meetings are still to happen. theprogress on opening up of new landroutes for trade in rajasthan andPunjab has also been disappointing.

Both sides have also agreed thatsoftware body National Association ofSoftware and Service Companies(Nasscom) would co-ordinate withPakistan Software export Develop-ment Board to facilitate a road showfor Pakistani It companies in Banga-lore, Hyderabad and other Indian Ithubs for extending co-operation inthis sector. However, progress on thisfront has also been also slow andpainful.

‘Political issues’ said to have impacted movement of negotiations and initiatives

India says trade talks with Pakistan hit speed-breaker

Pakistan’s currentaccount deficit increases to $3.77bg Poor dollar inflows continue to

haunt economic managers

PRO 19-06-2012_Layout 1 6/19/2012 12:12 AM Page 1

news02Tuesday, 19 June, 2012

ISLAMABAD

APP

DeSPIte energy crisis and other relatedchallenges, the country's Large Scale Man-ufacturing (LSM) witnessed growth of 1.02

percent during the first ten months of the ongoingfiscal year as compared to the growth of the corre-sponding period of last year.

the provisional Quantum Index Numbers(QIM) of Large Scale Manufacturing Industries wasrecorded at 112.71 points during July-April (2011-12) against 111.58 points during July-April (2010-11), according to data of Pakistan Bureau ofStatistics (PBS).

the Provisional QIM is being computed on thebasis of latest production data of 112 items re-

ceived from sources including Oil Companies Advi-sory Committee (OCAC), Ministry of Industries &Production (MoIP) and Provincial Bureaus of Sta-tistics PBoS).

OCAC provides data of 11 items, MoIP of 36items while PBoS proved data of remaining 65items.

According to the PBS data, the highest growthof 0.98 percent was witnessed in the indices ofMinistry of Industries that increased from 111.14during last year to 112.70 during the ongoing year.

Similarly, the indices of PBoS increased from122.89 points last year to 125.03 points this year,showing an increase of 0.42 percent.

However, the indices of OCAC witnessed nega-tive growth of 0.39 percent as it declined from83.48 points last year to 77.89 points this year, the

data revealed.However, on month-on-month basis, the over-

all industrial growth decreased by 11.94 percentduring April 2012 when compared to growth of112.64 points during March 2012.

Similarly, on year-on-year basis, the industrialgrowth decreased by 1.87 percent during April 2012as compared to 112.64 points of the same month oflast year.

Meanwhile, the major sectors have showedgrowth during July-April (2011-12) included foodbeverages and tobacco, production of which in-creased by 5.78 percent.

Similarly, the pharmaceutical sector witnessedgrowth of 8.33 percent, non-metallic mineral prod-ucts 2.42 percent, paper and board 20.85 percentwhile the textile industry grew by 0.65 percent dur-

ing the period under review.the other LSM industries that witnessed posi-

tive growth in production included, wood products,production of which increased by 2.94 percent, au-tomobiles by 0.38 percent whereas the fertilizerproduction increased by 1.37 percent.

On the other hand, the LSM industries that wit-nessed negative growth included iron and steel,production of which decreased by 27.24 percentduring the period where as the production of cokeand petroleum products also declined by 7.85 per-cent.

Similarly, the production of electronics de-creased by 7.17 percent, chemicals by 3.68 percent,rubber products by 24.06 percents while the pro-duction of engineering products decreased by 11.71percent.

ISLAMABAD

APP

PreSIDeNt Asif Ali Zardariwill pay a three-day officialvisit to russia from June 20-22 to participate in the Saint

Petersburg International economicforum (SPIef).

President Zardari will join otherworld leaders in the russian historic cityof St. Petersburg that annually gathersleading decision-makers from across theglobe to identify key economic chal-lenges and engage them in finding solu-tions. With this year's theme `effective

Leadership', the President will highlightthe issues affecting the global economyand the increasing role of emerging eco-nomic powers in shaping regional andglobal agendas.

President Zardari will also take partin the panel discussion titled `Leader-ship that works' and will stress to mini-mize the global financial crisis and findways to strengthen energy security, reg-ulate financial markets, and introducinglarge-scale reforms.

He will also present Pakistan'spoint of view on the global economicmodel for the 21st century that canwithstand geopolitical challenges

and meet the interestsof all countries.

the Presidentduring his stay willhold talks with hisrussian counter-part VladimirPutin besides meet-ing several world

leaders and foreign dignitaries onthe sidelines of the forum. He will

also interact with the presidentsand CeOs of the leading interna-tional business companies toseek investment in Pakistan, par-ticularly in energy sector. the

SPIef will debate important top-ics including global energy outlook,the eurasian economic integra-

tion, international globalenergy award, bank-

ing in the 21stcentury and in-vestment inhuman capital.

Citizens urgecurtailing saleof smuggledtobacco products

ISLAMABAD

APP

Citizens on Monday stressed the needfor curtailing sale of smuggled andduty-non-paid tobacco products in thecountry.According to them, this illicit trade notonly causes annual loss of more thanrs 10 billion to the national exchequer,but also undermines public healthagenda as these tobacco products fail tocomply with the regulations.Most of these packs do not even carrythe Urdu health warning while the reg-ulations prohibiting consumer promo-tions are also being blatantly violated,they added. they asked the authoritiesconcerned for efficacious implementa-tion of tobacco control laws and tomake proper strategies in preventingsale of tobacco to minors. expressingdismay over flagrant disregard of anti-tobacco laws, citizens said that effec-tive on-ground implementation of theregulations will only serve the purposeof tobacco control. they said that sincere efforts areneeded to prevent the spread of to-bacco use as smoking at indoor publicplaces, tobacco product advertising andpromotion, printing of pictorial healthwarnings on packets and availability ofduty-evaded and attractive lookingsmuggled brands in the market are stillwidespread.It is pertinent to mention here that inline with the spirit of framework Con-vention on tobacco Control (fCtC),the government has enacted various to-bacco control measures through theProhibition of Smoking and Protectionof Non-Smokers Health Ordinance2002. the said law contains provisions re-stricting smoking at public places, re-stricting advertising and promotion oftobacco products and prohibiting saleof cigarettes to minors.

Large scale manufacturing grows 1.02 percent in 10 months

Zardari to visit Russia on 20thto attend Int’l Economic Forum

ISLAMABAD

OnLIne

Acting President, ICCI, Asad faridhas expressed deep concern overcolossal production losses of bil-lions of rupees per day due to ongo-ing more than 14- hours-longelectricity load shedding in the fed-eral Capital.

He said that the chamber wasbeing forced by all the trade and in-dustrial associations to give a callfor indefinite strike as the electric-ity outage have crippled their busi-nesses, and the situation had turneddeplorable to the extent that neitherindustrial units were operative norwere traders doing any business be-cause of the electricity shortage.

ICCI Acting President also an-

nounced the intention of ICCI tostage a peaceful rally on June 20,starting from Blue Area to Parlia-ment House against unscheduledand prolonged electricity outage,while he has invited all the traders,industrialists, trade bodies, laborsand general messes to join handswith Islamabad Chamber againstelectricity load shedding.

He lambasted the prevailingpower shortage, with negative im-pacts on the production process aswell and export of value added in-dustries which was considered to bea major foreign exchange earner ofPakistan has also recorded a steepfall due to electricity load shedding.

He urged the Government totake all possible steps for consistentsupply of electricity to industries.,

shortage of which had been one ofthe major factors causing Pakistan'seconomy to under-perform amongst-its regional peers.

He said the ICCI has repeatedlywarned the Government about themassive lay-offs and industrial clo-sures if it fails to immediately stoppower outages but Government isnot wiling to understand the groundrealities.

tariq Sadiq, Chairman founderGroup, Munawar Mughal, MianAkram farid, Khalid Javed formerPresidents ICCI and others alsoshowed concerned over a deterio-rating electricity situation andstrongly emphasized upon the Gov-ernment to give immediate atten-tion to run the existing power unitsby removing faults.

ICCI protests againstunscheduled power outages

PCSIR holdstrade show 2012

KARACHI

OnLIne

Pakistan Council of Scientific & Industrialresearch (PCSIr) on Monday arranged‘trade show 2012’ at a local hotel. federal Minister for Science & technol-ogy Mir Changzeb Khan Jamali was thechief guest, Chairman of PCSIr Dr.Shoukat Pervaiz, DG Dr. tanzeel HaiderUsmani and Head of the Centre AbdulWahab Khan were also presence at thisoccasion. the main feature of the exhibition in theinauguration of biomedical equipmentwhich has developed by PCSIr. thesebasic equipment has been importing incountry which is costly not only for thehospitals but also for a common man. PCSIr’s experienced scientists and tech-nicians worked hard to develop them tofacilitate the hospitals. In the welcomespeech by the Director General Dr.tanzeel Haider Usmani said that “KarachiLaboratories Complex is the premier lab-oratories of PCSIr, these laboratorieshave presently a strength of around 550,including 41 Ph.D’s and 124 M.Sc/M.S.and Be/MBBS degree holders. Our labo-ratories are nationally and internationallyaccreditated to ISO-17025, and most ofour exports/Imports get prior certified byour accreditated laboratories. thus these laboratories are contributingto the economy by saving huge amount offoreign exchange of the country”. He alsosaid that “It is my privilege to announcetoday the launching of Prototypes of 07electro Medical equipment, successfullydeveloped through this Project by ourHonorable Minister. four equipments have satisfactorilytested in Hospitals and now ready forlocal marketing, to substitute their costlyimports, being one of the cherished goalof PCSIr. I hope that the local industryand provincial Ministry of Health willsupport and encourage this humble effortof PCSIr to reduce our dependence onimported technology”.

ISLAMABAD

Online

Commerce Minister Makhdoom Aminfahim met with Choongjoo Choi Ambas-sador of South Korea and CounselorPark Jung Ho held here today to discussvarious dimensions of upcoming minis-ter’s visit to South Korea from 25-29thJune, 2012.

the minister informed Korean am-bassador that their visit would presentnew incentives, attractive policies andnew encouragements for the Korea toenhance the trade and investments.

He also stressed that current tradevolume; especially exports from Pak-

istan to Korea were very low, whichshould be enhanced further. “We are di-versifying our export product base andconcentrating on quality, design andpresentation with special focus on valueaddition” added the Senior CommerceMinster.

the overall aim of the Korean am-bassador visit was to enhance the tradevolume between the two countries andto encourage Korean investment in Pak-istan, having the key feature of the cur-rent visit is the signing of MOU betweenfederation of Chamber of Commerceand Industry (fPCCI) of Pakistan andKorean Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry (KCCI).

Fahim stresses intensive trade with South Korea

PRO 19-06-2012_Layout 1 6/19/2012 12:12 AM Page 2

ACCA urges integrating material sustainabilityinformation into corporate reportsCorporate reporting needs to be brought into the21st century by integrating material sustainabilityinformation into corporate reports, asserts ACCAtoday ahead of the United Nations Conference onSustainable Development, which will take place inrio, Brazil this month. to influence policy makersand create debate prior to the rio+20 summit,ACCA publishes a paper which looks at possiblechanges to a key aspect of the discussions – para-graph 24 - which is concerned with the integrationof material sustainability information into the cor-porate reports of listed and large private companies.Arif Masud Mirza, Head of ACCA Pakistan says: “tomake a difference, rio+20 needs to have goals thatare achievable and actionable – one of those goalsshould focus on the need for a global approach tosustainability reporting. Long term value is en-hanced by companies embedding sustainability intotheir business strategy and key processes, ratherthan treating sustainability information as a mereadd on activity. the long term viability of companieshas to be at the heart of corporate decision making.

ABU DHABI: Khalid Bin Shaheen (R), SEVP/Group Chief-NBP & Chairman NBP Exchange Company Limited isseen receiving the ‘Max Factor of the Year-2011-12’ awardfrom Santhosh KJ (C), Head Global Operations and Serv-ice Quality, Xpress Money Services in a ceremony heldin Abu Dhabi recently. Also seen in the picture is RizwanHamdani (L), Country Manager Xpress Money ServicesLimited, Pakistan.

news

Tuesday, 19 June, 2012

03

‘Stress test’ highlightstransport fears

LONDON

AGenCIeS

London businesses that tested alternativeworking arrangements last month in prepara-tion for this summer's Olympic Games sufferedproblems with technology and travel arrange-ments, a survey showed. A "stress test" in which more than 100 compa-nies asked staff to experiment with remoteworking or changes to their journeys failed todispel concerns about how smoothly the capitalwill function during the Games, which run fromJuly 27 to August 12.Nearly 80 percent of the companies that tookpart said they were confident they could copewith the impact of the Games, business servicesgroup Deloitte said.However, it noted that companies conscien-tious enough to join the test were likely to beamong the best prepared. "that some compa-nies experienced difficulties indicates the needfor companies to be thorough in their planningand testing, and not take these changes forgranted," said Mark Naysmith, Games readi-ness director at Deloitte. "Questions do stillremain for the wider business communityabout whether they are ready or not."the government wants to use the Olympics tohelp to showcase British business and is hopingthe Games can help to pull the country out ofrecession. It does not want the capital to begridlocked during the Games and for activity tofall away.

FTSE 100 falls as Greekrelief proves short-lived

LONDON

AGenCIeS

Britain's top shares saw an opening leap swiftlyreversed in early trade on Monday as relief atSunday's Greek election result was counteredby a fresh spike in bond yields for Spain andItaly, showing the euro zone debt crisis was farfrom over. A narrow victory by pro-bailout parties inGreece over radical leftists eased concerns thedebt-laden country could leave the euro zone,which would have dealt a savage blow to the re-gion, but with major problems in Spain, andconcerns over Italy, severe uncertainties re-main. Spanish 10-year government bond yields roseto 7.14 percent, their highest during the euro'slifetime. Greece, Ireland and Portugal wereforced to seek international bailouts soon aftertheir 10-year bond yields surpassed 7 percent.Italian 10-year bond yields rose to 6.08 per-cent. "A new Greek coalition government is unlikelyto be able to restore economic growth or delivereffective reform without substantial financialhelp from the rest of the euro area. Meanwhile, the market focus will shift back tothe larger economies of Spain the Italy whichare also struggling against a weakening globalgrowth backdrop," said trevor Greetham, Di-rector of Asset Allocation at fidelity WorldwideInvestment in a note.

CORPORATE CORNER

KARACHI: The British Deputy High Commissioner andDirector UK Trade and Investment Francis Campbell andCEO of Sigma Motors Col (r) Syed Zafar Uddin Ahmad atthe launching ceremony of Range Rover Evoque at theBritish Deputy High Commission.

Chairman FBR Mumtaz Haider Rizvi, President HondaR&D Southeast Asia, Mr. Kenji Kawaguchi, CEO AtlasHonda Saquib Shirazi and officials at the inauguration ofproduction capacity enhancement of AHL.

LAHORE: The first lucky draw for the campaign (KhazanaKhushiyoun ka & AC Free Bill) was held at the Haierhead office. The top management of Haier Pakistan—in-cluding the Country Manager Sales & Marketing, theBrand Manager and Product Managers—was present atthe occasion which drew around 5,000 entries from allover the country. Two out of 27 lucky winners won prod-uct packages, while 10 lucky mothers won multiple Haierproducts and 15 won Free Electricity Bill for a Yearagainst the Haier air-conditioners they purchased. Thesecond lucky draw results will be announced on June 22.

KARACHI

STAFF RePORT

ON the first working day of theweek, the bulls kept dominatingthe Karachi stock market withthe benchmark, KSe 100-share

index up by 88.33 points. Ahsan Mehanti, Director at Arif Habib

Investments Limited, said that the Pak-istan stocks closed higher on institutionalsupport after global stocks and commodi-ties recover.

the trading volumes at the ready-counter were recorded lower at 79.961 mil-lion shares against 109.142 million sharesof the previous day.

the trading value was decreased to rs3.052 billion compared to rs 3.792 billionof the last day session. the intraday highand low, respectively, stood at 13,821.21and 13,665.80 points.

He added that the hopes for improve-ment in Pak-US ties affected the investorsentiments despite concerns for present ju-dicial crises in the country.

the market capitalization grew mod-estly and increased to rs 3.510 trillionfrom rs 3.490 trillion a day earlier. Of the

total 388 traded scrips, 140 gained, 123lost and 75 finished as unchanged.

the free-float KSe-30 index alsogained 110.33 points to close at 11,897.20points against the previous 11,786.87points. the KSe all-share index closed witha gained of 56.87 points to 9,687.35 pointsas against 9,630.48 points.

According to the Mehanti "mixed viewson future economic and political outlookkept investors activity limited".

Jahangir Siddiqui Company was theday’s volume leader counting its tradedshares at 10.508 million with the openingand closing rates standing at rs 14.20 andrs 13.40, followed by fauji fertilizers Bin,engro foods Limited, Bank Al-falah andNational Bank Pakistan with the turnoverof .928 million, 4.915 million, 4.909 mil-lion and 4.807 million shares respectively.

On the future market, the turnover de-creased by over one million shares to 7.127million against 8.126 million shares of lastworking day of the week friday.

the UniLever food and Indus DyeingXD, up rs 102.29 and rs 17.99, led highestprice gainers while, rafhan Maize Prod andMitchells fruit, down rs 139.85 and rs15.14 respectively, led the losers.

KSE overcomes bear hugto post 88 points gain

Eurobonds are ‘totally wrongmethod,’ Swedish PM says

STOCKHOLM

AFP

Swedish Prime Minister fredrik reinfeldt repeated on Monday hisopposition to so-called eurobonds, insisting it was the wrong wayto go in fighting the crisis crippling the eurozone.Introducing eurobonds to average-out the cost of borrowing forthe crisis-hit countries is the "totally wrong method," reinfeldtwas quoted by the Dagens Industri financial daily as saying.eurobonds "send wrong signals in both directions," said theSwedish premier, whose country is not a member of the eurozone.He lamented, according to Dagens Industri, that such a measurewould push up borrowing rates for countries with well-managedeconomies while countries in need of reforming their economieswould see rates artificially lowered, paving the way for over-con-sumption.Instead of artificially boosting the struggling economies, reinfeldtinsisted that the answer lay in "more national reforms to increasecompetitiveness (and in) getting the national states to work by get-ting rid of corruption."the topic of eurobonds has split the 17-nation bloc and was themain sticking point at an informal eU summit last month.france, the european Commission and several other memberstates believe that eurobonds could represent the best way to exitthe crisis crippling the eurozone.Germany had been steadfastly against introducing such bonds, be-lieving both that it would end up picking up the tab and that itwould reduce the pressure on debt-wracked countries to tackletheir deficit problems.reacting to the outcome of elections in Greece on Sunday, wherethe euro-friendly conservative New Democracy party won a nar-row victory, reinfeldt meanwhile said the result was positive in thesense that there now "at least is a possibility" that a Greek govern-ment could be created.this in turn would improve the possibility of Greece being able toremain in the eurozone, he said, according to Dagens Industri."However, he stressed, "it is absolutely not possible to say the dan-ger is over.""Many negotiations remain," he said, adding that it would be astep in the right direction if Greece could get everyone, "also therichest, to start paying taxes."

G20 to press Europe forlasting fix for debt crisis

LOS CABOS

AGenCIeS

World leaders, relieved that pro-bailout parties won a narrow elec-tion victory in Greece, will pile pressure on europe at the G20 sum-mit on Monday to outline a lasting strategy to save the eurocurrency and end financial turmoil. Group of 20 leaders from majorindustrialized and developing economies, representing more than80 percent of world output, start a two-day meeting in this Pacificresort to prioritize growth and job creation as the path to bolsteringa world economy that is running out of steam. escalating violencein Syria and the near-collapse of a United Nations-brokered peaceplan also will be in focus when US President Barack Obama meetswith russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the sum-mit on Monday. the two super powers are clashing over armingSyria and U.N. sanctions. But europe's progress toward lasting solu-tions for its debt crisis will be the focal point when G20 leaders holdtheir opening session on the global economy. While the Greek votehas eased immediate uncertainty over a possible euro zone breakup,the relief in financial markets could quickly evaporate. G20 coun-tries want to hear whether europe is moving toward adopting a firmroadmap with a timetable for achieving the huge leap of financial,fiscal and political union in order to strengthen the resiliency ofmonetary union -- a path that eU leaders as yet have been unreadyto take ahead of their summit at the end of June.

KARACHI

AGenCIeS

Sugar production will rise in India, Pak-istan, russia and european Union eUmember states and its global productionlikely to rise by about 5% to 172.8 milliontonnes (mt) in 2011-12 marketing season,UN food & Agriculture Organization fAOsaid. Global sugar production stood at165.1 mt in 2010-11 marketing year (Octo-ber-September). fAO's current estimatefor world sugar production in 2011-12stands at 173 mt, relatively unchangedfrom November 2011 forecast, but 4.6%larger than in 2010-11.Downward revisions in output in Brazil,Mexico and United States were largelyoffset by upward revisions in eU, russiaand Pakistan. Developing countries areforecast to harvest 131 mt, 1.2% more thanin 2010-11, led by rise in India and Pak-istan, and in developed countries antici-pated to expand by 17% to 42 mt.Indian sugar production is pegged at 28.1mt in current season from 26 mt in 2010-11 marketing season.In Pakistan, fAO said sugar output is ex-pected to rise to 5.2 mt in 2011-12 mar-

keting season from 4.4 mt in the year-agoperiod.fAO expects global sugar consumption torise to 167.4 mt in current season on backof low prices and increased availability.Increased supply availability and lowerprices are expected to support largersugar intake than in previous season. In2009-10 and 2010-11, high domesticsugar prices curtailed demand in virtuallyall regions.World per capita sugar consumption willremain steady at 23.8 kg in 2011-12. De-spite rising sugar consumption, globaleconomic slowdown could hamper de-mand growth, according to fAO. "Aggre-gate sugar utilization in developingcountries is set to expand by 2.4 mt to 118mt, or 70.4% of global consumption. Ingenerally more mature markets of devel-oped countries, consumption is to in-crease by 1.3 mt."However, a slowdown of global economicgrowth in 2012 could undermineprospects for demand expansion, as man-ufacturing and food preparation sectors,which account for bulk of aggregate sugarconsumption, are particularly sensitive toincome changes," fAO report said.

Sugar production likely torise in Pakistan by 5 percent

PRO 19-06-2012_Layout 1 6/19/2012 12:12 AM Page 3