KARACHI: Pakistan has begun phasing out this month the use of central bank foreign exchange reserves to pay for oil imports, forcing commercial banks to find currency, a central bank spokesman said on Friday.
The move was made to comply with an undertaking to the International Monetary Fund in November in return for an emergency $7.6 billion loan package to stave off a balance of payments crisis.
From Feb 1, the central bank no longer provided dollars to pay for imports of furnace oil, used to fuel power stations, and from Aug 1 it would stop providing the currency for imports of diesel and other refined products.
The central bank would carry on providing currency for crude oil imports until Feb 1 next year.
Syed Wasimuddin, the chief spokesman for the State Bank of Pakistan, said furnace oil payments had represented about 22 per cent of the total drain on reserves from oil imports.
According to the latest official data, Pakistan�s oil import bill rose 38.6 per cent to $5.88 billion during the first half of the fiscal year to June 2009, compared with a year earlier.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Foreign exchange market
The foreign exchange (currency, ForEx, or FX) market is where currency trading takes place. FX transactions typically involve one party purchasing a quantity of one currency in exchange for paying a quantity of another. The foreign exchange market that we see today started evolving during the 1970s when worldover countries gradually switched to floating exchange rate from their erstwhile exchange rate regime, which remained fixed as per the Bretton Woods system till 1971.
Today, the FX market is one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, corporations, governments, and other institutions. The average daily volume in the global foreign exchange and related markets is continuously growing. Traditional daily turnover was reported to be over US$3.2 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements.[1] Since then, the market has continued to grow. According to Euromoney's annual FX Poll, volumes grew a further 41% between 2007 and 2008.[2]
The purpose of FX market is to facilitate trade and investment. The need for a foreign exchange market arises because of the presence of multifarious international currencies such as US Dollar, Pound Sterling, etc., and the need for trading in such currencies.
Forex Margin Trading
Comparing to other investment, the Foreign Exchange margin trading is one of the fairest and the most attractive investment method. The Foreign Exchange margin trading meaning the traders borrow loan from bank, finance organization or broker house to carry on the foreign currency trading. Generally, the financing proportion is above 20 times, which means the Forex traders’ fund may enlarge to 20 times to carry on the trading. The bigger the financing proportion, means the Forex traders just need to pay very less fund, for example, the financing proportion provided by the financial organization is 400 times, namely the lowest margin request is 0.25%, the traders just need to pay 25 US dollars, then he or she could trade as high as 10,000 US dollars, fully using the contra method to make big profit by only paying a very less price. Besides the fund enlargement, another attraction of the Forex margin trading method is that it can be traded in both ways, you can make profit by buying the currency when the currency rise (makes many), or to sell a currency when the currency is dropping to make profit (short-selling), thus does not need to be restricted by the restriction so-called bear market is unable to make money. |
| Making Profit in the Foreign Exchange Market |
The currency fluctuate continuously due to reasons such as political, economical reasons, sometimes the changes could be extremely great, therefore, the Forex traders also can have the opportunity in among which makes a profit. For example, the Japanese Yen daily fluctuation is probably between 0.7% to 1.5%, Forex traders may make profit through buying and selling. All trading could be completed in a short time, the trading strategy could be carry up according to the market conditions, it is extremely flexible, even if the direction looks wrong, the lost could be stop immediately, the lost could reduce but profit potential is still great. Therefore, the Foreign Exchange margin trading is the most flexible and the most reliable investment method. Foreign Exchange Margin Trading elementary knowledge |
China exports fall sharpest in over a decade
BEIJINGP: Chinas exports fell 17.5 percent in January from a year earlier; customs authorities said Wednesday, marking the sharpest drop in more than a decade. The countrys trade surplus remained high at 39.1 billion dollars, due to an even steeper drop in imports, which plunged 43.1 percent year-on-year, according to customs data. The weakening in the trade statistics came amid falling demand in key overseas markets and a general reduction in activity caused by the Lunar New Year holiday period, which began in January. "The sharp slump in both inbound and outbound trade was likely exacerbated by the Chinese New Year holiday," Jing Ulrich, head of China equities at JP Morgan, said in a report on the data. "The sharp contraction in imports reflects slowing domestic investment and lower demand and likely signals continuing export weakness in the future," she added. he drop in exports followed declines of 2.8 percent in December and 2.2 percent in November, the first time in seven years that Chinese exports have fallen.
Sony Ericsson W902
| General | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
|---|---|---|
| 3G Network | HSDPA 2100 | |
| Announced | 2008, July | |
| Status | Available. Released 2008, October |
| Size | Dimensions | 110 x 49 x 11.7 mm |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 99.8 g |
| Display | Type | TFT, 256K colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches | |
| - Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate - Dedicated music keys |
| Ringtones | Type | Polyphonic, MP3, AAC |
|---|---|---|
| Customization | Download, order now | |
| Vibration | Yes |
| Memory | Phonebook | 1000 x 20 fields, Photo call |
|---|---|---|
| Call records | 30 received, dialed and missed calls | |
| Card slot | Memory Stick Micro (M2), 8 GB card included | |
| - 25 MB shared memory |
| Data | GPRS | Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps |
|---|---|---|
| HSCSD | Yes | |
| EDGE | Class 10, 236.8 kbps | |
| 3G | HSDPA 3.6 Mbps | |
| WLAN | No | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v2.0 with A2DP | |
| Infrared port | No | |
| USB | Yes, v2.0 |
| Features | Messaging | SMS, EMS, MMS, Email, Push Email |
|---|---|---|
| Browser | WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML (NetFront) | |
| Games | Yes + downloadable, order now | |
| Colors | Volcanic Black, Wine Red, Earth Green | |
| Camera | 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, flash, video (QVGA 30fps), secondary videocall camera | |
| - Java MIDP 2.0 - Walkman player - FM radio with RDS - Camera images geo-tagging (cell ID) - TrackID music recognition - SensMe - Shake control - T9 - Image viewer - Picture editor - Organiser - Built-in handsfree - Voice memo |
| Battery | Standard battery, Li-Ion 930 mAh | |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-by | Up to 380 h | |
| Talk time | Up to 9 h |
BlackBerry Pearl 8110
| General | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | 2008, January | |
| Status | Available. Released 2008, January |
| Size | Dimensions | 107 x 50 x 14 mm |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 91 g |
| Display | Type | 65K colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 240 x 260 pixels | |
| - QWERTY keyboard - Wallpapers |
| Ringtones | Type | Polyphonic (32 channels), MP3 |
|---|---|---|
| Customization | Download, order now | |
| Vibration | Yes |
| Memory | Phonebook | Yes |
|---|---|---|
| Call records | Yes | |
| Card slot | microSD (TransFlash), buy memory | |
| - 64 MB flash memory |
| Data | GPRS | Yes |
|---|---|---|
| HSCSD | No | |
| EDGE | Yes | |
| 3G | No | |
| WLAN | No | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v2.0 with A2DP | |
| Infrared port | No | |
| USB | Yes |
| Features | OS | BlackBerry OS |
|---|---|---|
| Messaging | SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging | |
| Browser | HTML | |
| Games | Yes + downloadable, order now | |
| Colors | Black, Blue | |
| Camera | 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video, flash | |
| - Built-in GPS - Java - Document viewer (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF) - Media player - SureType keyboard software - Organizer - Calculator - Built-in handsfree - 3.5 mm stereo jack |
| Battery | Standard battery, Li-Ion 900 mAh | |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-by | Up to 360 h | |
| Talk time | Up to 4 h 10 min |
Nokia E63
| General | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
|---|---|---|
| 3G Network | UMTS 900 / 2100 | |
| UMTS 850 / 1900 - American version | ||
| Announced | 2008, November | |
| Status | Available. Released 2008, December |
| Size | Dimensions | 113 x 59 x 13 mm, 87 cc |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 126 g |
| Display | Type | TFT, 16M colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 320 x 240 pixels, 2.36 inches | |
| - Full QWERTY keyboard |
| Ringtones | Type | Polyphonic, MP3, True Tones |
|---|---|---|
| Customization | Download | |
| Vibration | Yes |
| Memory | Phonebook | Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall |
|---|---|---|
| Call records | Detailed, max 30 days | |
| Card slot | microSD (TransFlash), up to 8GB, hotswap, buy memory | |
| - 120 MB internal memory - ARM 11 369 MHz processor |
| Data | GPRS | Class 32, 100 kbps |
|---|---|---|
| HSCSD | Yes | |
| EDGE | Class 32, 296 kbps | |
| 3G | Yes, 384 kbps | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v2.0 with A2DP | |
| Infrared port | No | |
| USB | Yes, v2.0 microUSB |
| Features | OS | Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 UI |
|---|---|---|
| Messaging | SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging | |
| Browser | WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML | |
| Games | Downloadable, order now | |
| Colors | Ultramarine Blue, Ruby Red | |
| Camera | 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, flash, video (QVGA@15fps) | |
| - Java MIDP 2.0 - MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player - 3.5 mm audio output jack - Office applications - FM radio - Push to talk - Voice command/dial - PIM including calendar, to-do list and printing - Built-in handsfree |
| Battery | Standard battery, Li-Po 1500 mAh (BP-4L) | |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-by | Up to 432 h | |
| Talk time | Up to 11 h |
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