Sunday, 9 September, 2012

FAISALABAD

APP

DR Asim Hussain, Adviserto Prime Minister on Pe-troleum and Natural Re-sources, said theprovision of uninter-

rupted gas supply to the textile industrywas priority of the government to bringthe forex earning sector back on track.

Addressing textile exporters at thePakistan Textile Exporters Association(PTEA) on late Friday, he said PresidentAsif Ali Zardari had already directed tomake a roadmap for the revival of thetextile industry.

Dr Asim appreciated the role of tex-tile exporters in the development of thecountry and said that they had played arole in putting the country on the pathto economic prosperity.

“The Textile industry is the mainstayof exports and a symbol of Pakistan’smanufacturing excellence and the gov-ernment will extend full support to textileexporters and make the business com-munity a partner in national develop-ment as both would work together for thebetterment of the economy,” he added.

He said that severe shortages of gasin the country called for extraordinarymeasures on war footing and Iran-Pak-istan and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline projectswere being pursued to increase gas sup-plies.

He said that gas load-sheddingwould be less in the coming winter thanit was in the previous year. “Import ofLNG will lessen gas shortages but it willtake some time,” he added.

He further said gas productionwould increase by another 400 million

cubic feet per day by mid2013, which would nar-row the gap betweensupply and demand.

Regarding the GasInfrastructure Develop-ment Surcharge, the fed-eral adviser said thegovernment had reducedthe cess by 50% on demandfrom industrialists. He an-nounced that paid gas devel-opment charges

would be refunded in fu-ture bills.

Earlier Rana Arif Tauseef,Chairman Pakistan Textile Ex-porters Association, welcomed thefederal adviser. In his welcome ad-dress, he explained in detailproblems faced by thetextile industry.

‘Ensuretransparencyfor 3G Spectrumauction’

ISLAMABAD

NNI

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf whois also Minister Incharge ofInformation Technology chaired ameeting of the Ministry of IT here onSaturday to review its working. ThePrime Minister was briefed about theworking of the Ministry as well as stepstaken by the Ministry for auction of 3GSpectrum. Prime Minister Raja PervezAshraf issued directions thattransparency and merit are ensuredand the entire process is carried outaccording to rules and regulations. Themeeting was attended by Mr Basit RiazShaikh Advisor to Ministry of IT andother senior officials of the Ministry.

Clean EnergyExpo Asia 2012from Wednesday

ISLAMABAD

ONLINE

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) isorganizing a three-day Clean EnergyExpo Asia 2012 which is starting fromWednesday in Thailand as Asia needsclean energy to power sustainable andinclusive economic growth. CleanEnergy Expo Asia will provide aplatform to discuss and tap into thelatest advancements in greentechnologies and clean energy researchwhile networking with prominentbusiness leaders, policy makers,academics and innovators from theclean energy sectors in Asia and beyond.Clean Energy Expo Asia will address keyregulatory as well as technologicalissues delving into the areas of Solar,Wind, Biomass, Hydro, Waste toEnergy, Energy Efficiency, BuildingRetrofitting, Smart Grids, Renewableand Energy Efficiency Financing andSustainable Mobility Solutions. TheBank said the conference will bringtogether the entire clean technologyecosystem helping assess and acceleratefinancially proven advancements fromdevelopment to implementation.

VLADIVOSTOK

AFP

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced hopeSaturday that the US Congress would act thismonth to end Cold War-era trade restrictions onRussia but also raised concerns on human rights.

The so-called Jackson-Vanik amendment of1974 tied US commerce with the then SovietUnion to human rights, depriving normal tradingrelations in a bid to pressure Moscow to allow em-

igration of its Jewish community.President Barack Obama’s administration has

pushed for the repeal of the measure as it goes againstthe rules of the World Trade Organisation, whichRussia entered last month with support of the UnitedStates.

Clinton said that Russia’s WTO membership“is good for Russia, it’s good for America and it’s

good for the global economy”, and said thatrepeal of the Jackson-Vanik

amendment would “make sureour companies get to com-

pete”. “We hope that theCongress will act on this

important piece of legislation this month,” Clinton saidin a speech to an Asia-Pacific summit in the Russianport city of Vladivostok.

While Jewish emigration is no longer a major issue,a number of US lawmakers have voiced concern aboutRussia’s human rights record as well as other policies,including its military sales to war-ravaged Syria’s regime.

Lawmakers have pushed for the replacement ofJackson-Vanik with a new law that would deny visasand freeze assets of Russian officials involved in the2009 death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscowprison. Magnitsky, who was jailed after charging finan-cial wrongdoing by government officials, allegedly diedof torture and untreated medical conditions.

A senior State Department official said that Clinton“raised our ongoing concerns about human rights inRussia” during talks in Vladivostok with Foreign Min-ister Sergei Lavrov. The official declined to give moredetails about the discussion but said that Clinton ad-dressed “recent sentences” and new Russian laws seenas restricting freedom of speech and the activities ofnon-governmental groups.

The United States has criticised Russia for jailingthe dissident punk rock group Pussy Riot over a per-formance in a Moscow church.

Let there be no furtherinterruption

Clinton hopes US to endRussia trade curbs

‘Uninterrupted gas to industries on priority’

LCCI rings the alarm bellsWarns of serious consequences against further hike in PoL prices

LAHORE

ONLINE

Lahore Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry Saturday warned the governmentof serious consequences if it makes anyfurther increase in the prices of petro-leum products.

In a statement issued here, the LCCIPresident Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that aseries of protests, in consultation with allthe trade and industrial associations,would launched against weekly increasein the petroleum products and the federalgovernment would be responsible for anyuntoward situation.

The LCCI President said that thebusiness community was unable to un-derstand that under what law the govern-ment is making repeated upwardincreases in the petroleum prices whenit always make POL products purchasesfor three months.

He said that the government should

revisit its petroleum prices fixation for-mula and make it acceptable to businesscommunity that is the main stakeholderto all economic policies.

Irfan Qaiser Sheikh asked as to howa businessman would be able to calculatethe prices of his merchandise when he isunaware of their input cost. It is not theelectricity alone that has destroyed eco-nomic activity but the government itselfis responsible for economic meltdown bytaking steps like petrol hike.

He said that the Lahore Chamber ofCommerce and Industry had a number oftimes asked the government to takeChambers of Commerce onboard whiletaking industry-related decisions but tono avail. “If repeated increase in the fuelprices would be made, the entire economywould suffer and the same happened inPakistan in the last many months as therepeated hikes in the POL prices had ru-ined the industrial and economic activi-ties.”

The LCCI President said that only be-cause of high cost of doing business inPakistan, a large number of industrialunits had already shifted their operationsto other countries and the recent decisionwould force more industrialists to shifttheir industrial units.

He said that Government is produc-ing huge amount of electricity throughthermal means and after increase in pe-troleum prices, prices of electricity wouldtouch new highs.

Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the La-hore Chamber of Commerce and Indus-try had for the last many years beencalling on the concerned government cir-cles to take measures for the promotionof alternate fuels as trade deficit was fastwidening due to heavy imports under thehead of petroleum products.

He was of the view that the timelinefor the increase in the prices of petroleumproducts was also raising questions be-cause at a time when the whole industry

was suffering due toenergy crisis and highcost of doing busi-ness, the raise in POLprices is bound togive a death blow tothe industry. “Itseems that it isan attempt tocreate trou-bles for theg o v e r n -ment.”

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02

Sunday, 9 September, 2012

Business

Dollar falls, gold rallies asjobs data spursFed hopeThe US dollar sank against major currenciesand gold prices jumped to a six-month highas anemic American jobs growth fueledinvestor bets that the Federal Reserve willlaunch another round of monetary stimulusfor the world’s biggest economy, perhaps assoon as next week.

NEW YORK

AGENCIES

Yields on safe-haven U.S. Treasuriesslumped on the disappointing August jobsdata, while yields on Spanish and Italiangovernment debt extended their slide tomulti-month lows after the EuropeanCentral Bank on Thursday announced plansto combat the region’s three-year-old debtcrisis by buying sovereign bonds. Theprospects for ECB action supported the euroearly in the session, and the currencyextended its gains after the U.S. LaborDepartment reported nonfarm payrollsincreased by 96,000 in August, well belowforecasts for 125,000 new jobs. The FederalReserve starts a two-day policy meeting onWednesday, and markets will keenly awaitthe U.S. central bank’s statement issued onThursday and a media briefing by ChairmanBen Bernanke. “This weak employmentreport, in jobs, wages, hours worked andparticipation is probably the last piece theFed needs before launching another roundof quantitative easing next week,” saidJoseph Trevisani, chief market strategist atWorldwide Markets in Woodcliff Lake, NewJersey. “QE will boost equities, damage thedollar and do little for the economy, butwhat else can an activist Fed do?” The U.S.dollar fell 1.0 percent to 80.194 against abasket of major currencies .DXY. The eurotouched around a four-month high againstthe dollar of $1.2814 before paring gains totrade at $1.2810. Against the Swiss franc thecommon currency rose to its highest level ineight months. U.S. gold jumped to$1,740.80, the highest since late February.U.S. stocks seesawed as investors weighedthe chances for more quantitative easingfrom the Fed, which would pump moneyinto the economy to try to boost growth. TheDow Jones industrial average ended up14.64 points, or 0.11 percent, to 13,306.64.The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index closed up5.80 points, or 0.40 percent, to 1,437.92.The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.61points, or 0.02 percent, to 3,136.42. “I thinkthe market doesn’t really know what to do.What I suspect will happen is, for the rest oftoday and all through Monday and Tuesday,the market is just going to probably gosideways in anticipation of that FOMCmeeting,” said Randy Frederick, managingdirector of active trading and derivatives forCharles Schwab in Austin, Texas. Thebenchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note wasup 2/32, the yield at 1.6695 percent, afterfalling sharply in price on Thursday whennews of the ECB plan reduced the need forsafe-haven bets. The FTSEurofirst 300equity index closed at 1106.72, up 0.18percent on the day. Ten-year Spanish bondyields slid to 5.646 percent, their lowestsince early April. The MSCI world equityindex .MIWD00000PUS climbed 1.2percent to 330.24. The index is back to itslevel of early May, when demand was stillbeing supported by a massive injection ofcheap three-year funds into the bankingsystem by the ECB. Oil prices rose involatile trading on expectations of Fedstimulus, even as the weak jobs data dentedthe outlook for petroleum demand settledup 0.93 percent at $96.42 a barrel. BrentOctober crude rose 76 cents, or 0.67percent, to settle at $114.25 a barrel.

BRUSSELS

AFP

Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France and

the world’s fourth-wealthiest, confirmed reports

Saturday that he was seeking Belgian nationality

as Paris moves to impose a 75-percent wealth tax.

But the 63-year-old billionaire head of the

LVMH luxury goods empire denied he planned

to be a tax exile and said he would also keep his

French citizenship. The Belgian daily La Libre

Belgique earlier quoted Georges Dallemagne, the

head of the Belgian parliament’s naturalisation

commission, as saying that Arnault’s application

would be treated the same as all the others.”

“We currently have 47,000 before us,” he told

the paper. Belgian legislation requires applicants

for citizenship to have had at least three years

residency in Belgium, barring which they need to

prove ties to the country, Dallemagne said.

Arnault lives in Paris and has a home in Brus-

sels, the daily said. “Contrary to the reports pub-

lished today, Mr Bernard Arnault states that he

is and will remain a French tax resident,” a state-

ment put out by Arnault’s press office said.

“If he obtains dual French-Belgian national-

ity it would not change this position, nor his de-

termination to pursue the development of the

LVMH group and the creation of jobs in France

which this engenders.”

The statement said Arnault’s move was

linked to plans for his own private Groupe Ar-

nault “to expand its numerous activities in Bel-

gium.” “Mr Arnault, who is from northern

France, has many personal and family ties with

Belgium as well as on the professional front,” it

added.

His application comes amid a debate on one

of the main pledges that France’s President Fran-

cois Hollande made during the election cam-

paign earlier this year — to impose a 75-percent

tax on incomes above one million euros.

Press reports this week said that the govern-

ment was looking to water down the measure by

raising the threshold to two million euros for

couples and excluding capital gains. But on Fri-

day Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici vowed

that the campaign promise would be “strictly”

implemented.

The new tax is due to be included in the 2013

budget, which the government expects to finalise

later this month. Arnault, whose fortune is esti-

mated to stand at 41 billion dollars by Forbes

magazine, was a close ally of France’s former

right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Following the election of France’s previous

Socialist president Francois Mitterrand in 1981,

Arnault lived in the United States for three years,

returning to France after the Socialists switched

to a more conservative economic course.

France’s richest man turns to Belgium as wealth tax looms

Oil rises as jobs datareinforces stimulus hopes

NEW YORK

AGENCIES

BRENT and US crude fu-tures posted smallweekly losses, after fivestraight weekly gainsand a surge of more than

9 percent in August.U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by

only 96,000 last month, the Labor De-partment said on Friday, below theforecasted rise of 125,000. While theunemployment rate dropped to 8.1percent from 8.3 percent in July, it waslargely due to Americans giving up thesearch for employment.

Oil prices received a lift from ex-pectations that the jobs report in-creases the likelihood that the U.S.Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meet-ing next week will result in a thirdround of monetary stimulus, known asquantitative easing or QE3.

Additional stimulus is expected toweaken the dollar, which is usuallysupportive to dollar-denominatedcommodities like oil. The dollar wasbroadly weaker on Friday, with thedollar index .DXY down nearly 1.0 per-cent, with the U.S. currency droppingto a near four-month low against theeuro. Brent October crude rose 76cents to settle at$114.25 a bar-rel, havings w u n gbetween

$112.34 and $114.65.For the week, Brent slipped 32

cents. U.S. October crude rose 89 centsto settle at $96.42 a barrel, below the200-day moving average of $96.62,after trading from $94.08 to $96.74during the session.

For the week, U.S. crude lost only5 cents. Money managers raised theirnet long U.S. crude futures and optionspositions in the week to September 4,the Commodity Futures Trading Com-mission (CFTC) said on Friday.

U.S. RBOB gasoline futures rosenearly 1 percent. Even at the sessionhigh of $3.0541 a gallon, there was asignificant gap still to be closed toreach $3.1056, where the Septembercontract expired and went off theboard last Friday. U.S. heating oil fu-tures rose, but only 0.2 percent.

“It was a decidedly negative reportdue to the meager number of jobs cre-ated in August and the downward revi-sion for the two prior months,” saidJohn Kilduff, partner at Again CapitalLLC in New York. “However, the dataare clearly disappointing enough toallow for a third round of quantita-tive easing, which lendssupport to com-m o d i t y

prices and would enable a run at $100per barrel for (U.S.) crude,” he added.

China’s approval of a multibillion-dollar infrastructure program helpedpush key industrial feedstock copper,another dollar denominated commod-ity, to its highest price in nearly fourmonths. MULLING RESERVES RELEASE:

The possibility that strategic oil re-serves may be released by the UnitedStates and other major oil consumergovernments hemmed in oil prices,after U.S. government officials met oilmarket experts on Thursday as theWhite House considers the merits ofanother release.

While oil companies work to re-store energy operations on the U.S.Gulf Coast after Hurricane Isaac,the government’s report onWednesday showed domes-tic crude oil stockpiles,excluding the SPR,fell 7.43 millionbarrels int h e

week to August 31. U.S. regulators said36.35 percent of daily oil production inU.S.-regulated areas of the Gulf of

Mexico remainedshut on Friday,an improve-ment of 6.63p e r c e n t a g epoints fromThursday.M I D D L E

EAST UN-

C E R T A I N T Y :

The threat persiststhat violence in the

Middle East could es-calate and disrupt flows

of oil from the region. Ablast outside a mosque in

Syria’s capital on Friday killedfive security personnel and

wounded others.Britain, France and Germany

called on their European Union part-ners on Friday to im-

pose new sanctionsagainst Iran overits nuclear pro-gram. The EU’sembargo on Iran-ian crude is in itsthird month.Canada sus-pended diplo-matic relationswith Iran, closingits embassy inTehran and giv-ing Iraniandiplomats inCanada fivedays to leavethe country,Foreign Minis-ter John Bairdsaid, callingIran thebiggest threat

to global se-curity.

Oil prices rose in volatile trading after a disappointing US August jobs report

weakened the dollar and bolstered expectations for stimulus from the US

Federal Reserve, even while denting the outlook for petroleum demand

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