Man who correctly predicted US election winners since 1984 predicts Trump’s defeat

Historian and American University professor Allan Lichtman, who has correctly guessed every United States presidential race winner since 1984, including Donald Trump’s surprise victory in 2016, has predicted that Trump will not get another term. Lichtman measures the chances of the winner based on his “13 keys to the White House” scale. The keys factor in the strength of the economy, incumbency, contests, policy changes, scandals, social unrest and even the charisma of the incumbents and challengers. As per the scale, if six or more of these statements are true,…

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CPI inflation clocked in at 8.9% in October

CPI inflation has been recorded at 8.9 percent for October 2020, against 9.04 percent in September. Although general inflation reduced yet, food inflation is still in double-digit and has increased. Last year, in October 2019, the CPI was at 11.04 percent, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday reported. Average inflation of July-October 2020 was recorded at 8.86pc compared to 10.32pc in corresponding period of last year. In FY20, the average inflation was recorded at 10.74pc, with peak reading in January of 14.56 percent year-on-year. The latest CPI bulletin…

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Govt approves subsidy for farmers

ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday approved a fertiliser subsidy of Rs5.4 billion for farmers, two days after a ruckus in the federal cabinet over increasing inflation and the lack of a coordinated response to tackle it. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet approved a subsidy of Rs1,000 per 50kg bag of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance. The Rs5.4 billion subsidy has been worked out on the basis of 30% outreach to the farmers and the federal government will bear…

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Pakistan to seek China loan rollover

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to seek rollover of a $3 billion Chinese trade finance facility that it has actually used to repay maturing debt and is not in a financial position to return the money when the facility expires after six months. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has fully tapped the $3 billion or 20 billion Chinese yuan in the additional trade finance facility available under the China-Pakistan currency swap arrangement, showed financial accounts of the SBP for fiscal year 2019-20. Sources said Pakistan largely utilised the Chinese trade…

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Remittance inflows to increase by 9pc, says WB

The ‘Migration and Develop­ment Brief’ released on Friday says that the negative impact of the Covid-19-induced global economic slowdown has been somewhat countered by the diversion of remittances from informal to formal channels due to the difficulty of carrying money by hand under travel restrictions as well as the incentives to transfer remittances. Citing example, the report titled ‘Phase-II Covid-19 Crisis through a Migration Lens’ says Pakistan has introduced a tax incentive in July 2020, whereby withholding tax was exempted from cash withdrawals or the issuance of banking instruments or…

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