Thursday, October 15
Major stock indexes and the dollar eased on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed his latest trade threats, recommending 50% tariffs on European Union imports from June 1 and considering a 25% tariff on any Apple iPhones made outside the U.S. Shares of Apple ended 3% lower, while the three major U.S. stock indexes finished weaker but off session lows. European shares also ended lower. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, hit a three-week trough. For the week, the dollar was down 1.9%, on track for its biggest weekly percentage decline since early April. The dollar sank 1% versus the Japanese yen, while the euro rose 0.8% against the dollar. Government bonds in the United States and Europe climbed on safe-haven buying after sustaining h
On 9 May 2025, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released another $1 billion to Pakistan, a perennial economic basket case, its twenty-fifth programme since 1958. To Islamabad, the Fund has become less surgeon and more morphine dispenser-administering sedatives that stave off collapse while entrenching the very pathologies that caused it.Pakistan's generals and kleptocrats pocket the stability premium; its citizens inherit the bill.India recognised the paradox and, at the IMF Executive Board, abstained. We lacked the 85% super-majority needed to veto, a privilege de facto reserved for the US with its 16.5% quota. No country alone can block routine disbursements, which pass on a simple majority. India's 2.6% vote could therefore only register its considered moral dissent. It signalled t
India has become the fourth largest economy in the world, overtaking Japan, NITI Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam said on Saturday. Briefing reporters after the 10th Governing Council meeting of Niti Aayog, Subrahmanyam said overall geopolitical and economic environment is favourable to India. "We are the fourth largest economy as I speak. We are a USD 4 trillion economy as I speak," he said. Citing IMF data, Subrahmanyam said India today is larger than Japan. "It is only US, China, Germany, which are larger than India and if we stick to what is being planned and what is being thought through, in 2.5-3 years, we will be the third largest economy," Subrahmanyam. Responding to a question on US President Donald Trump's recent statement that he expects Apple iPhones that will be sold in the U
