Year: 2021

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Wednesday said Pakistan will not be exiting the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) programme, whose “strict conditions” also come with a “political cost”. Addressing a news conference here, Tarin said while the country would not leave the programme, the government would seek “space” from the international financial institution given the current situation of Covid-19, state-run Radio Pakistan reported. He said: “We have already held some good talks with the IMF and the World Bank.” He also discussed the way forward to take the economy towards growth.…

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The last year wasn’t an easy year for anyone. Lockdowns dampened economic activity to the point that GDP fell nearly everywhere. Major markets in the Middle East and other places where energy is a crucial contributor to the economy faced an additional challenge in the significant decline in the price of oil. That might have wrought a great deal of damage to Islamic financial institutions (IFIs). Yet banks and other financial entities that operate according to Shariah law performed well overall, according to data from S&P Global. Net profits for…

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U.S. oil major Chevron (NYSE: CVX) last month signed a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply and purchase agreement with Hokkaido Gas for a half million tons of LNG from its global portfolio spread over a period of five years, starting from April 2022. Chevron said its new partnership will broaden its customer base in Japan, a market that is foundational to its overall LNG business. The new deal typifies how LNG markets in the Asia-Pacific region, home to around two-thirds of global LNG demand, are still undergoing systematic changes amid a prolonged…

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Singapore, while not a domestic oil producer, has high stakes in this sector. The country is a global oil trading hub and a major global refining and petrochemicals center, accounting for 1.5 million barrels a day or 1.5 per cent of the global refining volume, and 25 million tonnes per annum or 1.2 per cent of the global petrochemicals capacity. It also thrives on a large shipping industry and is one of the main shipping bunkering stations in the world, given its strategic location. But that may change as the…

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