Aurelia Butler

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistani Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday China had rolled over a $2 billion loan that matured last week, providing relief during the South Asian nation’s acute balance of payment crisis.Locking in a rollover had been critical for Pakistan, where reserves have dipped to just four weeks’ worth of imports and talks over an International Monetary Fund bailout tranche of $1.1 billion have hit a stalemate.”I am happy to confirm that this had been rolled over on March 23,” Dar told parliament, referring to the maturity date. He said all concerned documentation had been completed.Neither the government in Beijing nor the Chinese central bank responded to requests for comment on the rollover. Dar’s comments were the first official announcement of the rollover after the loan matured. Dar did not give the new maturity date or other terms of the arrangement.A top finance ministry official told Reuters on Wednesday that a formal confirmation of the refinancing would be made after the process was completed. One of the IMF’s conditions for the release of the next tranche is assurance of external financing to fund Pakistan’s balance of payments.Longtime ally Beijing has provided the only help Islamabad has got so far, with refinancing of $1.8 billion credited last month to Pakistan’s central bank.In its monthly Economic Update and Outlook, the Finance Division of the government noted that Pakistan was currently confronted with shortage in external liquidity. Islamabad has been negotiating with the IMF since early February for the release of $1.1 billion from a $6.5 billion bailout package agreed in 2019. To unlock the funding, the government has cut back on subsidies, removed an artificial cap on the exchange rate, added taxes and raised fuel prices.”Through demand management policies, the government is trying to limit the current account deficit, which will not transfer further pressure on dwindling reserves,” read the report. It added that inflation, which is already running above 30%, a near 50-year high, is expected to stay elevated. The report cited market frictions caused by relative demand and supply gaps of essential items, exchange rate depreciation, and the recent upward adjustment in prices of prices of fuel as reasons behind higher inflation expectations. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar pared gains against the euro on Friday after U.S. data showed personal consumption expenditure growth slowed in February, supporting hopes of a softer monetary policy approach from the Federal Reserve. The euro was 0.17% lower at $1.08855 after the data. The common currency had slipped as low as $1.08645 before the data. Earlier in the session data showed euro zone inflation dropped by the most on record in March, but core price pressures, which exclude food and energy, accelerated, maintaining pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to keep raising rates.The data has left markets positioned for more rate rises in the euro zone than in the United States More

This indicator is considered the main reference for the country’s public accounts sustainability and was at 72.5% in January. Last week, the central bank decided to hold its benchmark interest rate at a six-year high of 13.75% for the fifth consecutive time, citing concerns over worsening inflation expectations and defying intense pressure from new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to reduce borrowing costs.According to the central bank, the Brazilian public sector posted a primary deficit of 26.453 billion reais ($5.19 billion) for the month, below the 30 billion reais shortfall expected by economists polled by Reuters.Over the course of 12 months, the public sector recorded a surplus equivalent to 93.250 billion reais, or 0.93% of GDP. However, the outlook is for a return to a primary deficit this year, especially after the new leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva obtained approval from Congress for a multi-billion reais spending package to fulfill campaign promises. In February, the central government’s 39.238 billion reais deficit was the main driver of the result. States and municipalities reached a primary surplus of 11.847 billion reais, while state-owned companies had a surplus of 938 million reais.($1 = 5.0983 reais) More

Contracts tied to gold prices were also little changed and precious and base metal prices remained subdued as markets awaited U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) data, due at 8:30 a.m. ET.The PCE data will offer clues on the outlook for interest rate hikes and the strength of the U.S. dollar. [GOL/] [MET/L]Oil prices were stable, but on course for their weakest performance since November. [O/R]Canadian gross Domestic Product data (GDP), due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to reflect a 0.3% rise in January, according to a Reuters poll of economists, compared with a 0.1% fall in the previous month.March futures on the S&P/TSX index were up 0.08% at 7:04 a.m. ET.In company news, Rogers (NYSE:ROG) Communications Inc’s C$20 billion ($15 billion) bid for Shaw Communications (NYSE:SJR) Inc is expected to gain government approval after the telecom firm agreed to sell Freedom Mobile to Quebecor for C$2.85 billion, as per a report.Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) Inc and Norway’s Yara International (OTC:YARIY) ASA said they are planning to invest up to $2.9 billion to build a low-carbon blue ammonia production plant in Texas.First Quantum Minerals (OTC:FQVLF) Ltd and Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) Ltd will form a joint venture to develop the La Granja copper project in Peru, with the Canadian miner buying a 55% stake in the project.In the previous session, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended 0.5% higher, underpinned by gains in commodity-linked stocks. (TO)Dow e-minis were up 71 points, or 0.21%, at 7:04 a.m. ET, while S&P 500 e-minis were up 7 points, or 0.17%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 4.25 points, or 0.03%. [.N]COMMODITIES AT 7:00 a.m. ET Gold futures: $1,986.8; -0.09% [GOL/]US crude: $74.86; +0.64% [O/R]Brent crude: $79.4; +0.3% [O/R]U.S. ECONOMIC DATA DUE ON FRIDAYFeb Personal Consumption Expenditure data due at 8:30 am ETMarch University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment due at 10:00 am ETFOR CANADIAN MARKETS NEWS, CLICK ON CODES:TSX market report (TO)Canadian dollar and bonds report [CAD/] [CA/]Reuters global stocks poll for CanadaCanadian markets directory($1 = 1.3538 Canadian dollars) More

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s government laid out a fresh plan on Friday to boost childcare over the coming three years to reverse the country’s declining birth rate, a move that may lead to another big spending package and strain its already tattered finances.Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has repeatedly vowed to double childcare-related spending but has steered clear of elaborating on details, which he said will firm up in June when the government publishes a mid-year policy roadmap.Under the plan, the government will expand child allowances by scrapping means testing. It will also offer paid parental leave fully in workplaces, encouraging parents to have a double income.Announcing the proposals, Masanobu Ogura, the minister in charge of childcare policy, said more needed to be done to help mothers back into the workplace.”In Japan, two-income households are rising, but mothers tend to give up on their career while being forced into ‘one-ope’ childcare by taking on unpaid household work 5.5 times that of fathers,” Ogura said.”I can’t say anything concrete now on the childcare budget,” Ogura added.Japan’s government earmarked around 6.1 trillion yen ($45.74 billion) for this fiscal year to arrest the declining number of children and a senior ruling party lawmaker was quoted by media this week as demanding an additional 8 trillion yen to fund the new measures.Economists questioned both how the package would be funded and whether it would be successful.”A boost to child allowances could cost 2 trillion yen to 3 trillion yen. It sounds like the same old spending spree, which did not necessarily turn around the birthrate,” said Takahide Kiuchi, a former central bank board member and now an economist at Nomura Research Institute.”The government may end up issuing extra bonds, with the justification that education-purposed bonds should help future generations.”RECKLESS SPENDINGFinance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Friday Japan must come up with a “permanent source of revenue” to fund childcare policies, but voiced caution over the idea of issuing extra debt.Ranil Salgado, the International Monetary Fund’s Japan mission chief, urged Tokyo to target such financial incentives towards low-income households.”Everyone acknowledges childcare support is important given Japan’s need to boost the growth rate. But we still believe those measures could be, or any support, should be targeted,” he told an online briefing on Friday.Japan is among the world’s fastest ageing societies, with the number of newborns falling below 800,000 for the first time, having peaked at 2.09 million in 1973 during the second baby boom.The declining birth trend has been blamed for intensifying labour crunch and pushing down Japan’s long-term growth potential.Some analysts see the latest plan as a sign Kishida is trying to shore up support and gearing up to call a snap election in coming months, to solidify his standing within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).”Opposition parties also have no objection to boost childcare spending,” said political analyst Atsuo Ito. “Both sides appear to join in a race to boost reckless spending.”($1 = 133.3500 yen) More