Iranian export to ECO members on the rise

Iran exported over US$3.6 billion worth of commodities to the members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year. This reflected a 4.52%YoY increase, said an official with the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

According to Omid Golzari, the head of the IRICA Office of International Affairs and Public Relations, Iran exported 8.161 tons of goods to the ECO members during the said period, Tasnim News Agency reported.

The volume of exports also increased by 31.24% as compared to the same period last year.

As previously announced by the IRICA head, Iran’s trade with the members of the Economic Cooperation Organization reached US$20.5 billion in the previous Iranian calendar year.

According to Mohammad Rezvani-Far, Iran exported US$13 billion worth of commodities to the said nations last year, while the imports were recorded at US$7.5 billion.

Referring to the trade potentials of ECO member countries in various fields, such as rail and land transport, common borders, as well as territorial and population size, Rezvani-Far said the volume of commercial exchanges with ECO members should be more than this figure.

“IRICA is fully prepared to take the necessary measures for increasing the volume of trade and transit exchanges with ECO members in order to achieve the organization’s goals set according to the ECO agreement,” he said.

The official underlined the development of transit ties with ECO members as a way of boosting trade exchanges with the mentioned countries.

“Iran has many customs agreements and memorandums with ECO member countries, and in order for these agreements to be operational in line with the provisions of the ECO agreement, it is suggested that the ECO secretariat announces the necessary measures needed to be taken with the cooperation of the members,” he noted.

Iran and ECO members traded more than 23.723 million tons of goods worth US$11.71 billion during the previous Iranian calendar year, of which the share of exports was 18.419 million tons of goods worth US$6.890 billion and the share of imports from these countries was 5.312 million tons worth US$4.819 billion.

Petroleum products, dairy products, foodstuff, fresh and dried fruits, juices and citrus fruits, carpets, saffron, fish, caviar, ornamental aquatic products, various stones, construction equipment, clothing, industrial equipment, bags and shoes, medicine, and health supplies, as well as plastic products, were Iran’s main exported items to ECO members last year, while basic goods, industrial machinery, raw materials for production, and medical supplies and medicine, were the top imported goods from ECO member states.

The Economic Cooperation Organization or ECO is an Asian political and economic intergovernmental organization that was founded in 1985 in Tehran by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey.

Singapore: Tharman the Next President

The former Singapore ruling party stalwart Tharman Shanmugaratnam has won 70.4% of the vote in a crushing victory in the republic’s three-way presidential contest, a result that foiled expectations that he would be hurt by recent political scandals involving his ex-colleagues.

The Elections Department officially declared in favour of the 66-year-old in the early hours of Saturday. Earlier, the other two candidates, Ng Kok Song and Tan Kin Lian, effectively conceded the race.

Ng won 15.72% of valid votes while Tan received 13.88% of the votes. More than 2.48 million votes were cast in Singapore, with 50,152 rejected votes.

Tharman, a 22-year veteran of the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), had faced questions during the campaign over whether the party’s recent political scandals – as well as overall public disquiet over rising inflation – would hurt his chances.

Tharman said he was humbled by the result. “It’s a vote of optimism for a future in which we can progress together and support each other as Singaporeans,” he said.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the leader of the PAP government, said in a statement that he had called Tharman and assured him of the administration’s full cooperation.

“I have every confidence that he will carry out his duties as President with distinction,” Lee said. “Tharman has also declared his intention to work closely with the government,” he added.

The three candidates met stringent criteria to run for the race to succeed the incumbent, President Halimah Yacob, for a six-year term.

The republic’s presidency is a largely ceremonial role with custodial powers over the use of the country’s vast fiscal reserves and appointment of key public officials such as the chief justice, military chief, police commissioner and the attorney general.

Ng, 75, is a former chief investment officer at the state investor GIC, and was seen as the next most palatable to the republic’s middle-ground voters.

Tan, also 75, is a former chief executive of the state-linked insurer NTUC. He gained endorsements from a handful of opposition politicians, and was described as the preferred choice of voters hoping to use the contest to show their disaffection with the PAP.

 

Pakistan Stock Exchange benchmark index declines almost 5%WoW

During the week ended on September 01, 2023, the benchmark index of Pakistan Stock Exchange declined by 4.95%, losing 2,358 points to close 45,313 level.

NEPRA’s announcement to increase the average national power tariff by PKR4.96/unit for FY24 was met with strong disapproval and countrywide protests.

The business communities and other political parties showed dismay as well and criticized DISCOs over the levied capacity charges on consumers. Moreover, the Finance Division allowed for a massive hike in petrol and diesel prices.

After much anticipation of upheaved inflation figures, August’s CPI was announced as 27.4%, giving a source of comfort during a crunch period.

Given elevated demand for the greenback, Pak rupee witnessed an erosion of 1.4%WoW, reaching PKR305.47 against US$ on Friday. Furthermore, towards the week’s end, the gap between the interbank and open market exchange rates remained 7.4%.

According to the IMF agreement, this gap should not be ±1.25% for 5 consecutive days. Moreover, the forex reserves held by the central bank declined by US$81 million to US$7.85 billion owing to debt repayments and July’s current account deficit can put additional strain on reserves. Cumulatively, these reasons have had a negative impact on the market.

To curb the gas sector’s revolving circular debt, Petroleum Ministry is gearing for a 60% increase in gas prices.

On the bright side, FBR has provisionally collected PKR1.21 trillion during first two months of FY24, against a target of PKR1.18 trillion, reflecting an increase of PKR24 billion.

Market participation witnessed a decline, with traded volume averaging at 187 million shares, as compared to the previous week’s average of 206 million shares.

Other major news flows during the week included: 1) Foreign investors’ buying in August reported at US$12.87 million, 2) PIA demanded PKR23 billion bailout from government, 3) CMEC announced to halt production at Thar coal mines given non-clearance of US$50 million, 4) Total tax collected from power sector including electricity bills was reported at more than PkR160bn for FY23, 5) SBP adopted certain AAOIFI’s Shariah standards, 6) Income tax department levied super tax on non-resident companies in negation of double taxation treaties, 7) DISCOs withdrew up to 41% less power from national grid in 4QFY23, and 8) slightly over 8 million mobile phones were manufactured by local plants during Jan-July 2023 period.

Textile weaving was the top performer, while close end mutual fund/ power generation & distribution/ automobile parts & accessories were amongst the worst performers. Major selling was recorded by Banks/DFI with a net sell of US$6.26 million. Insurance companies absorbed the selling with a net buy of US$7.9 million.

Top performing scrips of the week were: SCBPL, INDU, HMB, AICL, and NRL, while top laggards were: HGFA, DGKC, NML, APL, and NCL.

Going forward, market is in commensuration with outcomes of 1) upcoming Monetary Policy Committee meeting on 14th September, 2) ensuing review with IMF in October, and 3) developments encircling energy reforms.

In the event of an interest rate hike, cyclical sectors may face turbulence, although market has already adjusted for this impact.

Analysts reiterate following a cautious approach while picking stocks and continue to advocate US dollar-denominated revenue stream scrips (Technology and E&P sector) to hedge against currency risk or high dividend yielding scrips.

 

 

Israel Experiencing Worst Terrorism

In recent weeks, political and security officials have been putting out impressive statistics about hundreds or thousands of thwarted terror attacks, arrests, seized illegal weapons, and seized terror funds.

These statistics may look very impressive, and no matter what, they show that the security establishment is working overtime and doing its utmost to protect Israel. The problem is, these statistics do not occur in a vacuum; there are others.

Four terror attacks took place between Wednesday and Thursday, two of them in central areas that cannot be categorized into being limited to the West Bank.

In eight months of this year, it has become the bloodiest one since the Second Intifada nearly 20 years ago.

A question arises, why has terror gotten so out of control? Some of the apparent reasons may be:

It may be true that the terrorists want to kill Jews, but the spike in terror and the increase in lone wolf attacks and attacks by some Palestinians with worker’s permits – people who are not usually involved in terror – shows that there are bigger tensions than normal.

Another question is why there has been no diplomatic progress with the Palestinians for so long? Is it because many enemies of Israel view it as weaker and more distracted than usual by internal tensions over the judicial overhaul? Because the Palestinian Authority stopped trying to actively rein in terror?

Is it because the government has steadfastly refused to undertake a robust Operation Defensive Shield-style operation as in 2002? True, on July 3-4, the IDF undertook a massive operation in Jenin which improved things there some, but has not followed that with similar operations in other problem areas. Or because Iran is leaning in hard to incite a wider amount of the Palestinian population to terror?

Some mix of these longer-term reasons is likely true. There are also some near-term reasons.

Hezbollah has gotten away with keeping an outpost in Israeli territory in the disputed Mount Dov area now for several months. It has also numerous times violated Israel’s border in low-grade ways without paying much of a price.

There are reports that Hamas may consider a similar strategy in the South. In addition to being perpetually committed to Israel’s destruction, the terror group may be especially upset lately by a cut in its funds from Qatar.

In 2014, a mix of the Shin Bet and portions of IDF intelligence warned that allowing Hamas to languish too much economically could lead to an unexpected and unnecessary war – which it did.

Since then the defense establishment has been louder about making sure Hamas never drops below a certain economic level.

Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s direction, is said to be one of the key authors of the arrangement in which Qatar brings cash to Hamas to keep it afloat, without letting it save much for new weapons.

None of the defense establishment would publicly address the current situation with Qatar funding.

It is feared that Hamas may start building its own tents near the Israeli border fence and re-engage its 2018 strategy of marching on the fence with a mix of unarmed and armed Palestinians.

It does not threaten Israel in an existential way, and after the IDF slammed Islamic Jihad to the mat in May, Hamas is likely not looking for a big war, but will instead create more instability for Israel.

Increased terror from the West Bank where Hamas has plausible deniability and where Israel finds it hard to punish anyone aside from the specific terror cell involved is another clear way to pressure Israel into some additional concessions and to stay on the map as leading the resistance.

The only good news is that even as Israel has balked at bigger solutions, it has struck back hard to restore some semblance of stability when terror has spiked beyond certain boundaries.

If the latest wave of terror returns to general awful 2022-23 levels and falls from the current incredibly awful levels on its own, the IDF may just do more of the same. But if terror stays at this pace for the coming days and weeks, the IDF is likely to do a Jenin 2 to get it under control.

 

Expansion of BRICS: What are the economic implications?

In late August it was announced that from 2024, the BRICS—a political grouping that currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—will admit six new members: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Argentina, the UAE and Ethiopia.

The eleven countries combined represent around 45% of the planet’s population, over 40% of world oil production and roughly a third of global GDP. The BRICS average economic growth rate is likely to be notably above the global average. That said, the G7’s GDP is still substantially larger at market prices, and should remain so over the medium term.

The group’s key economic institution, the New Development Bank (NDB), is still tiny in comparison to other multilateral lenders. The Bank has financed projects worth around US$33 billion since 2015; in contrast, the World Bank alone committed around US$50 billion each year over the same period.

Other overarching economic structures are lacking, and a BRICS trade deal seems difficult to fathom given members’ vastly different stages of development and policy priorities.

Internal geopolitical disputes could further complicate economic rapprochement between members: Egypt and Ethiopia are at loggerheads over a dam on the Nile River, relations between Iran and its Gulf neighbors are still strained, and there are tensions between India and China over their shared Himalayan border and Indian restrictions on Chinese imports and technology.

The expansion of the BRICS could encourage greater political overtures and financial generosity from the G7 towards emerging markets going forward; the G20 summit later this year will be key to watch, with the UN calling on US$500 billion of annual financing from wealthy nations.

More countries are likely to join the BRICS in the coming years, as current members—particularly China and Russia—look to bolster an alternative to the G7-led world order.

BRICS members will increasingly conduct intra-member trade in local currencies to reduce dependence on the dollar, with the yuan and rupee set to be major beneficiaries.

That said, the US dollar will remain the global reserve currency for the foreseeable future - incumbency, dollar liquidity, the strength of the US economy, and the reliability of the US government as a debt issuer are key advantages. As for the BRICS grouping as a whole, it is likely to remain more of a political than an economic force.

On the BRICS’ prospects, EIU analysts said, “The BRICS group will not become a solid construction, regardless of how many bricks are added to the wall, and it will continue to face internal tensions and divisions. However, the expansion will bolster its geopolitical significance and its combined economic power, and the organization will continue to evolve. The relatively trouble-free and productive BRICS summit will enhance South Africa’s standing without damaging its relations with key Western partners.”

On the future of the dollar, ING analysts said, “Until international issuers and investors are happy to issue and hold international debt in non-dollar currencies – and the take-up of CNY Panda bonds has been very slow indeed – we suspect this will be a decade-long progression to a multi-polar world, a world in which perhaps the dollar, the euro and the renminbi become the dominant currencies in the Americas, Europe and Asia respectively.”

Courtesy: Focus Economics

Truth and Lies in the War on Terror

Six months after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and two years after the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, John Pilger’s documentary “Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror” highlighted the hypocrisy and double standards of the United States and British adventures of 2001-3, which led to the deaths of more than a million people.

The film opens with a series of haunting war photographs. Over the carnage, George W Bush says, ‘The United States will bring to the Iraqi people food and medicines and supplies, and freedom.’ His voice dissolves into the high-pitch of his co-conspirator, Tony Blair, who exalts his actions as ‘a fight for freedom’ and ‘a fight for justice’.

Pilger asks ‘What are the real aims of this war and who are the most threatening terrorists?' In a remote village in Afghanistan, he interviews Orifa, who lost eight members of her family, including six children, when an American plane dropped a 500-pound bomb on her mud-brick home. This is juxtaposed with Bush telling Congress that the United States is ‘a friend to the Afghan people’. Few countries have been helped less by the United States – less than three per cent of all aid to Afghanistan is for reconstruction from war damage. 

Kabul, the capital, is a maze of destruction, with cluster bombs not cleared from the city center and families living in abandoned buildings. ‘I’ve spent much of my life in places of upheaval, but I’ve rarely seen such a ruined city as Kabul,’ says Pilger, standing in a shoe factory where the populations of two villages have squatted, destitute. 

Most of the damage was inflicted not by the ‘official enemy’, the Taliban, but by warlords backed, trained and funded by the United States, who restored the poppy harvests and opium trade, which the Taliban had banned. 

Recalling the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Pilger reveals that President Jimmy Carter signed a secret presidential decree authorizing the bank-rolling of the warlords, known as the mujahedin, to fight the Red Army. Among them, the CIA and Britain's MI6 trained Islamic extremists, including Osama bin Laden, as part of what was called Operation Cyclone. From this, says Pilger, ‘came the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and the attacks of September 11’. 

The Taliban were also secret friends the United States. Shortly after they took power in Afghanistan, they were offered a bribe by the administration of President Bill Clinton if they backed a plan for an oil pipeline from central Asia through Afghanistan. However, when George W Bush became President, the connection between Al-Qaeda and the Taliban was an embarrassment, and the tie was cut. 

Pilger's interviews with administration officials – described by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern as ‘the crazies’ – are perhaps the highlight of a film made when 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq were raw.

He interviews Under Secretary of State John Bolton, who was Donald Trump's National Security Adviser. Bolton tells Pilger that the United States has done more ‘to create conditions in which individuals can be free around the world than any other country’.

When Pilger points to the US record of bombing countries into submission, Bolton says, ‘Are you a Labour Party member… or a Communist Party member?’ When Pilger replies that Tony Blair's Labour Party are his allies, he says, ‘Oh, really?’

Of all Pilger's films about American foreign policy, Breaking the Silence achieved something of a ‘cult’ status as counter-history and was shown across the United States – thanks in part to Ray McGovern, who took the film on a tour of campuses and small towns. ‘We warn people,’ he said, ‘about the crazies.’ Nothing, he might add today, has changed.

 

China tells India to stay calm in map row

According to the Saudi Gazette, China has told India to stay calm over a new Chinese map that Delhi says lays claim to its territory. India protested after Beijing released the map showing the north-eastern Arunachal Pradesh state and the disputed Aksai Chin plateau as China's territory.

Beijing responded by saying its neighbours should refrain from over-interpreting the issue.

Meanwhile, media reports say Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to skip next week's G20 leaders’ talks in Delhi.

Unconfirmed reports suggest Premier Li Quang will attend instead. Xi had earlier confirmed he would travel to Delhi for the meeting from 9-10 September, but China's foreign ministry did not confirm his attendance when asked to do so at a regular press briefing on Thursday.

India is not the only country to object to the map — on Thursday, the Philippines and Malaysia issued protests against China's claim of ownership over most of the South China Sea in the map. Taiwan — which China says is a breakaway province that will eventually be under Beijing's control — also objected to its inclusion in the map.

A politician from Nepal also cancelled a visit to China, saying the new map did not take into account the country's revised map, which has already sparked tensions with India.

The escalation over the 2023 edition of China's standard national map comes just days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi spoke on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in South Africa.

Indian foreign minister, Foreign Minister Jaishankar called China's claim absurd. An Indian official said afterwards that the two countries had agreed to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation along the disputed border.

On Thursday China indicated it wasn't budging on the map — the disputed border is an issue which has bedevilled relations for years.

"It is a routine practice in China's exercise of sovereignty in accordance with the law," foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

"We hope relevant sides can stay objective and calm, and refrain from over-interpreting the issue."

India has often reacted angrily to China's attempts to stake claim to its territory.

The source of the tension between the neighbours is a disputed 3,440km (2,100 mile)-long de facto border along the Himalayas - called the Line of Actual Control, or LAC — which is poorly demarcated and soldiers on either side come face to face at many points.

China says it considers the whole of Arunachal Pradesh its territory, calling it South Tibet — a claim India firmly rejects. India claims the Aksai Chin plateau in the Himalayas, which is controlled by China.

Relations between India and China have worsened since 2020, when their troops were involved in a deadly clash at the Galwan valley in Ladakh - it was the first fatal confrontation between the two sides since 1975.