Deficits pose big challenge, warns SBP

The State Bank of Pakistan. — File Photo

KARACHI: The State Bank kept the policy interest rate unchanged at 12 per cent on Saturday, saying the real challenge lay in financing the fiscal and external current account deficits.
The Governor of SBP, Yaseen Anwar, explained the difficulties being faced by economy as well as problems in monetary management during a media briefing where he announced the monetary policy for the February-March period.
The SBP expects the average inflation in 2011-12 (FY12) to range between 11 and 12 per cent, implying an uptick during the second half of the current fiscal.
The central bank chief said inflationary pressures had not eased significantly. There were indications of underlying inflationary pressures. For instance, the number of CPI items showing year-on-year inflation of more than 10 per cent was significant and mostly belonged to the non-food category, he added.
The SBP said it had been providing substantial liquidity on an almost permanent basis, but it carried risks for effectively anchoring inflation expectations in the medium term.
From July 1 to Feb 9, Rs230 billion had been supplied by State Bank.
The government has so far borrowed Rs444 billion from the banking system, including Rs197 billion from State Bank, an amount considerably higher than the yearly financing requirements of Rs293 billion envisaged in the FY12 budget, said Yaseen Anwar.
The provisional estimate of fiscal deficit for the first half of FY12 (July-Dec 2011), from the financing side, shows a deficit of Rs532 billion, or 2.5 per cent of GDP.
Over the past 10 years, the deficit has always been higher in the second half of a fiscal year by at least 0.5 per cent of GDP.
“Containing the FY12 fiscal deficit close to the government’s revised target of 4.7 per cent of GDP would be difficult,” the State Bank governor said.
BIG CHALLENGE: The SBP said the real challenge was to finance the projected external current account deficit.
“Incorporating a steady flow of workers’ remittances, the external current account deficit is expected to remain in the range of $3.5 billion to $5.5 billion, or 1.5 to 2.4 per cent of GDP,” said Yaseen Anwar.
The risks to external payments position have also increased due to worsening terms of trade, fragile global economic conditions, and continued paucity of financial inflows. In addition, $1.1 billion is to be repaid to the IMF during the second half of 2011-12.
The SBP’s foreign exchange reserves have already declined to $12.2 billion from $14.8 billion since July 1. Similarly, the rupee-dollar exchange rate has depreciated by 5.2 per cent in FY12 so far, he added.The possibility of limiting the deficit to the lower side of the range is mainly contingent upon the realisation of Coalition Support Fund, $800 million, and the proceeds from the auction of 3G licences, estimated to be around $850 million, he added.
The actual net capital and financial inflows during the first half of FY12 was only $167 million due to decline in both the direct and portfolio investments and shortfalls in official flows.
“Assuming that all the official flows contemplated by the government are realised – $500 million from the issuance of euro bonds, $800 million from the privatisation proceeds of PTCL, and budgeted loans from international financial institutions – the net capital and financial inflows could increase to $3.8 billion by June 2012,” said Mr. Anwar.
The SBP said the credit growth to private sector would remain weak. “All of the fresh credit disbursement in first half FY12 was utilised to meet the working capital requirements, which implies that a significant part of this credit will be retired in second half of the year,” said the Governor.
The full year expansion in credit to the private sector is expected to remain weak for yet another year in FY12 despite interest rate reductions.
“Though, tax collections in first half of the current fiscal grew by 27.1 per cent the full year target of Rs1952 billion still seems ambitious,” he said.

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CPAC Straw Poll Results 2012: Mitt Romney Wins Conservative Vote

WASHINGTON -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll on Saturday, a major symbolic victory as he tries to convince Republicans that he is sufficiently conservative to win the GOP nomination.Romney won 38 percent of the CPAC straw poll votes, with former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum coming in second at 31 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) picked up 15 percent of the votes and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who won the straw polls in 2010 and 2011, received only 12 percent of the vote.
The result came despite what has been a weaker conservative response to Romney than Santorum, who has little to prove as a conservative and Catholic who has strong evangelical support. Romney needed to fight against accusations that he is a "Massachusetts moderate" -- hardly a winning concept among staunch conservatives here -- and weak on pro-life issues.
Romney said in his speech Friday at CPAC that he is "severely conservative," and seemed to have a larger campaign presence at the conference than other groups, with dozens of volunteers lining the halls outside the main ballroom to talk about Romney after every event.
Romney also won in a national telephone poll of self-identified conservatives, also announced at CPAC on Saturday afternoon. In those results, Santorum came only two points behind Romney, at 25 percent to 27 percent.
The CPAC result could bolster the organizers' attempts to make the annual straw poll more relevant to the race after two consecutive wins by Paul. The CPAC straw poll used to be considered an indication of the preferences of strong conservative voters, but in the past two years seemed more indicative of the zeal of Paul supporters, who voted disproportionately among conservative attendees.
This time around, organizers implemented a new system in which CPAC attendees could vote either in person or online via computer or mobile device, hoping that making participation easier would make for a more accurate depiction of the crowd. "We have moved into the twenty-first century," Tony Fabrizio, who ran the straw poll, said before the announcement.
A roughly equal number of individual registrants and student attendees -- about 45 percent each -- participated in the straw poll, Fabrizio said. But votes were down from last year, from 3,742 to 3,408.
Al Cardenas, president of the American Conservative Union, told The Huffington Post's Jon Ward on Thursday that he wasn't "worried" that Paul would win the CPAC straw poll.
"Curious is more like it," Cardenas said. "In the past, to his credit, about 80, 90, 100 percent of people who were there and liked Ron Paul voted, and probably a very small percentage of those who liked others bothered to vote."
Paul had another disadvantage in the straw poll this year: he and his campaign skipped CPAC, unlike the other three candidates. Santorum received a particularly positive reception during his speech on Friday, in which he talked about his conservative and religious values.
The online voting for the CPAC poll was secure and there was no evidence of attempts to hack the system, Fabrizio assured reporters before the results came out on Saturday.
"Theoretically, you could sit there, if you were genius enough, and spend as many hours as you could to try to hack and figure out what the pin sequence is, but that would be a very difficult thing to do," Fabrizio said of the system, which requires a pin number for CPAC attendees to vote online. "Given the voting patterns that we have seen and the number of people participating, there is no indication that any of that is happening."
The straw poll also found that about a third of CPAC attendees believe Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) should be the vice presidential nominee; he was also chosen by 15 percent of participants in the national telephone poll. The national poll results on the vice president were less definitive, leading Fabrizio to joke to CPAC attendees, "You all have opinions. They need your help."
The straw poll could be more important than usual this year, provided the vote is not considered swayed by Paul devotees, because the race has been so divided. Different candidates won the first three contests -- Santorum in Iowa, Romney in New Hampshire and Gingrich in South Carolina -- and Santorum somewhat unexpectedly won all three races last week.
The Maine caucus results, which will be announced later Saturday, could give more of a boost to Romney, who is expected to do well there.

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‘Even Milan said we were the better side’

Arsène Wenger has called on his side to deliver a repeat performance of their historic 2-0 win at AC Milan when they face the Italian giants on Wednesday.

Late goals from Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Adebayor secured victory for Arsenal in 2008 as they became the first English club to beat the Rossoneri at the San Siro.

Wenger remains fiercely proud of that performance and says his current crop also have the quality to secure another famous away European result.

 “I felt it was such a great night because we stayed faithful to our game and played without complexity,” he said.

“I remember that even Milan said the better team won. So let's keep that in our memory and repeat the same performance.

“We have had quite a few good performances away in the Champions League over the years, and we are very proud of them. We won in Madrid in 2006, 5-1 at Inter Milan in 2003, and the 2-0 win against AC Milan in 2008.

“When you look back and remember, you realise that we have won at almost every big stadium in Europe. Yes, we have not won in Barcelona, where we have played a draw, but overall I think we have won everywhere.”

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Three dead in Sunni-Alawite clashes: Lebanon security

Lebanese Sunni militants of “Ansar”, supporters of the anti-Syrian opposition pose while securing an alley in the neighbourhood of Baba al-Tabbaneh in the coastal city of Tripoli north of Lebanon on Saturday. – Photo by Reuters

TRIPOLI: Three people died and 23 were wounded during fierce clashes on Saturday between Lebanese Sunni Muslims hostile to Syria’s regime and Alawites who support it, a Lebanese security official said.
“A Sunni and an Alawite were killed and 23 people were wounded in clashes that continued since Friday between people from the neighbourhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh” in the northern city of Tripoli, the official told AFP.
A 17-year-old girl died of her wounds later.
Ten soldiers were among those wounded in the fighting, among them a sergeant whose wounds were critical, the official added.
The two sides fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other in the bloodiest clashes since last June when six people were killed in the wake of demonstrations against the Syrian government.
Sunni-majority Tripoli has in the past few years been the scene of intense clashes between Sunni supporters of the anti-Syrian opposition and Alawite Muslims loyal to a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Iran and Syria.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting an unprecedented revolt against his regime, is from the Alawite community, an offshoot of Shia Islam.
The Lebanese army is deployed on the outskirts of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh, namely near Syria Street which separates the rival neighbourhoods.
Some residents have fled the area while those who stayed behind — both Sunnis and Alawites — said they are afraid that clashes will erupt anew while blaming the other side for the fighting.
“I am paying the price of a war which is not mine,” said Zeinab Yaghi, a 55-year-old Sunni Muslim mother of five whose house was hit in the crossfire.
“I know nothing about politics but supporters of the Damascus regime are causing problems here,” she said after fleeing her home with her children.
One Sunni man who declined to be identified said “rockets have been raining down on us since yesterday (Friday).” “They are constantly provoking us and waving pictures of Bashar al-Assad,” he said of his Alawite neighbours, adding however that he was not against the Alawites.
Some Alawites also expressed concern, saying they were afraid for their lives.
“We are afraid because there is a sectarian spin to things,” said Khaled al-Ali, a taxi driver.
“Since the crisis began in Syria we have been treated like foreigners. They provoke us all day long by staging anti-Alawite rallies,” he said.
“The imams in the mosques are setting the (Sunnis) against us in their sermons and we constantly receive threats saying we would be expelled from Tripoli if the regime in Syria falls,” he added.
The fighting erupted on Friday but subsided by Saturday afternoon after the army negotiated a truce between the two communities, officials said.
“I could not care less what happens in Syria,” said Mohammed Khaldiye, an Alawite.
“I just want to live in peace with my neighbours, in my city” of Tripoli.

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Pentagon says that NATO supplies from Pakistani airspace never stopped

Pentagon says that the air supply routes for NATO forces in Afghanistan were never closed by Pakistan.
Pentagon press secretary, George Little during a briefing Thursday said "only ground lines of communications were closed following the November 26 incident" adding that these ground routes had not been reopened yet. "We are hopeful that they would be reopened soon," he observed while conceding that it is a decision for the Pakistani government to make.
" Pakistan had closed down these routes in protest after the November 26 NATO airstrikes on Salala check-post in Mohmand Agency that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers”.
It may be mentioned here that following the closure of ground supply routes from Pakistan, United States has shifted the bulk of supply for NATO forces in Afghanistan through the northern supply routes from Central Asian states. "Although this route proves costlier for US, but at present almost 70 percent of NATO supplies are being transported through this route".
In a separate briefing, US State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland was asked about Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson s statement that the US authorities and their embassy in Islamabad had been apprised of concerns over the discussion on Balochistan in Washington. Ms. Nuland, however, expressed ignorance about any such development. "I am unaware about this. We have not been intimated anything officially by Pakistan in this regard," she pointed out.
A subcommittee of the US Congress Foreign Relations Committee had held a hearing on the killings and human rights violations  in Balochistan on Wednesday. The State Department spokesperson, though, had distanced the administration from the said hearing on Wednesday as well in response to another question.
"The Congress holds hearings on many foreign affairs topics. These hearings don’t necessarily imply that the US government endorses one view or another view. I would underscore that the State Department is not participating or involved in this hearing," she had argued while clearly stating that the US administration was not supporting demands for an independent Balochistan.

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HUM TV ---Drama Serial Humsafar Episode 20 -WATCH FULL EPISODE

Watch drama serial Humsafar Episode no. 20 of Hum Tv below

Promo of Hum tv Drama serial Humsafar Episode 21

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Aishwarya Rai glows at Riteish-Genelia wedding reception

While Abhishek attended the couple’s wedding, the new mom accompanied her parents-in-law to the reception

The wedding reception of Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D’souza was attended by the who’s who of B-town, but the one guest we were glad to see was Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The new mom looked gorgeous in her blue-and-green churidar kurta. All you Ash fans will definitely agree that we’ve not seen much of her since we found out about her pregnancy. She hardly ever stepped out in public, except for Sanjay Dutt’s Mata Ki Chowki, where she covered her baby bump with a red puja cloth, and to various Durga pujas, where she wore enveloping flowing garments. After the baby was born in mid-November, she attended a press conference organised by husband Abhishek and father-in-law Amitabh. She looked tired (delivering your child by the natural process does take its toll) but glowing in her pale pink anarkali. Just when we thought we would see more of her, she opted to retreat indoors again. Only now, three months later, has she finally stepped out and that too for such a grand event.

Not having seen her in a long time, we assumed she would be busy getting back in shape; especially since it had been reported that she would be ready to start shooting again from January for the oh-so-gossiped-about Heroine (when she was still a part of the project). However, after taking a look at her photos from the event, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. Looks like Ash prefers to keep herself busy bonding with her daughter, changing nappies and bathing the infant rather than thinking about anything else. No wonder then that despite not having attained her pre-pregnancy shape, she is radiating happiness. We also love her bond with her mother-in-law Jaya – so obvious from the photograph. It sure helps to have supportive in-laws. All you women out there, don’t you agree?

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