The first effective coronavirus vaccine can prevent more than 90% of people from getting Covid-19, a preliminary analysis shows. The developers – Pfizer and BioNTech – described it as a “great day for science and humanity”. Their vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries and no safety concerns have been raised. The companies plan to apply for…
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Libya’s crude oil production topped 1 million bpd, the National Oil Corporation said this weekend, although it added this level of production may not be sustainable. “It is worth mentioning that the National Oil Corporation faces very big financial difficulties and a huge shortage of its budgets which led to accumulating of debts on the sector’s companies and significant delay…
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Citi revised down on Monday its outlook for the WTI Crude price for next year by $5 to $49 a barrel, citing the global spike in coronavirus cases that is set to impact oil demand. Citi Research also cut its estimate for Brent Crude by $5 a barrel to $54 per barrel, Reuters quoted the bank as saying in a note on Monday. Two months ago,…
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KARACHI: The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) on Saturday held a webinar on ‘Post Covid-19 World Order: Challenges and Strategies’. Human rights activist and lawyer Hina Jilani said with regard to the Covid-19 crisis there’s so much to lament but also so much to reflect upon. It isn’t just a health crisis; it’s a human rights crisis. It’s also…
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U.S. energy firms this week added oil and natural gas rigs for an eighth week in a row for the first time since June 2018 as producers keep returning to the wellpad after crude prices held around $40 a barrel from mid June-late October. The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose four to 300…
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JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia is planning to accept new mining license applications in December 2020, said Khalid S. Al-Mudaifer, vice minister for mining affairs and president of Saudi Geological Survey. He also said the new mineral data of the Kingdom will be publicly available in the coming months. Speaking at a Mines and Money 5@5 webinar titled “The regional geological survey program —…
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Corporate profitability in the third quarter (July-September) was Rs210 billion, signifying a jump of 39 per cent from a year ago. It was the highest quarterly increase in corporate profits in any year. Quarter-on-quarter profitability also recorded stellar growth of 52pc. For the nine-month period (January-September), aggregate earnings of the companies that make up the KSE-100 index stood at Rs479bn,…
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KARACHI: Pakistan’s economy is now ready to take off. With the current account in surplus and the rupee appreciating, two things have become clear. First, imported inflation will now start receding. And second, the decline in the cost of external debt repayments will help the government to keep fiscal imbalance in check. That, in turn, will also reduce the need…
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Like other developing countries, Pakistan has been a consistent recipient of foreign loans and assistance in the form of project and programme loans and grants for social and economic development objectives through budgetary and balance-of-payments support. Programme loans are generally sought for achieving broad development and economic objectives like reforms while project loans are secured for specific projects and services…
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The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is making its mind to scale down the prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by doing away with the withholding tax (WHT) of 5.5 percent on its import, and slashing general sales tax (GST) of 17pc to 10pc on domestic production. And more importantly, 3 percent sales tax (ST) on LPG production will also be…
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