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KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has introduced a fully digital platform, “National Subsistence Farmers Support Initiative” (NSFSI) to facilitate subsistence farmers to obtain collateral-free financing from banks and MFBs. In a major step to boost rural livelihoods, in August, the federal government launched a Risk Coverage Scheme for Small Farmers, a landmark initiative aimed at expanding bank financing to small, marginalized, and previously unserved farmers. The move aligns with the Prime Minister’s vision to modernize and strengthen the country’s agriculture sector, ensuring financial inclusion and protection for those at the heart of Pakistan’s food economy. The scheme has…

HOUSTON: Oil prices fell on Tuesday, settling 1.5 percent lower as the International Energy Agency warned of a huge supply glut in 2026, and as trade tensions persisted between the US and China, the world’s two biggest economies. Brent crude futures fell 93 cents, or 1.5 percent, to settle at USD62.39 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude was down 1.3 pc, or 79 cents, at USD58.70. Both contracts were at a five-month low. In the previous session, Brent settled 0.9 percent higher, and US WTI closed up 1 percent. The world oil market faces an even bigger surplus next…

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Vietnam on Tuesday formally launched negotiations on a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) aimed at strengthening bilateral trade, investment and economic cooperation. The announcement and signing took place during a high-level bilateral meeting and the Pakistan–Vietnam Business Forum, held in Islamabad. The forum was co-chaired by Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan and Vietnam’s Minister of Industry and Trade NguyHgDiên. The event was attended by a number of Pakistani federal ministers, including Khalid Hussain Magsi (Science and Technology), Abdul Aleem Khan (Communications), Junaid Anwar Chaudhry (Maritime Affairs), and Rana Tanveer Hussain (National Food Security and Industries),…

WASHINGTON: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb had a busy first day of his official visit to the United States with a series of high-level meetings on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group (WBG) in Washington. The minister and his delegation had a key meeting with Jihad Azour, Director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, and his team, a news release said. Both sides exchanged views on Pakistan’s reform agenda and reaffirmed their shared commitment to sustaining the current momentum of reforms, a news…

WASHINGTON: Global markets are getting too comfortable with risks like trade wars, geopolitical tensions and yawning government deficits, which, combined with already overpriced assets, increase the chance of a “disorderly” market correction, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. Underscoring the IMF’s warning, President Donald Trump’s revived threats on Friday to hike tariffs on China stoked investor fears of a major asset price correction. The comments sparked a sell-off in US stocks and sent bitcoin tumbling. Despite this recent volatility, markets have mostly been resilient since April, when Trump unleashed his trade war, underpinned by expectations of monetary easing in…

LONDON: The world oil market faces an even bigger surplus next year of as much as 4 million barrels per day as OPEC+ producers and rivals lift output and demand remains sluggish, the International Energy Agency predicted on Tuesday. The latest outlook from the IEA, which advises industrialised countries, expands its prediction of a 2026 surplus from about 3.3 million bpd last month. A surplus of 4 million bpd would be equal to almost 4% of world demand, and is much larger than other analysts’ predictions. OPEC+ is adding more crude to the market after the Organization of the Petroleum…

China will become one of the “outsize contributors” to JPMorgan Asset Management’s five-year plan to double Asia-Pacific assets under supervision to about US$600 billion, according to the firm’s top executive in the region.“Our long-term goal is to grow [operations in the region] to a US$1 trillion business,” said Dan Watkins, CEO of Asia-Pacific at JPMorgan Asset Management, in an interview on Tuesday.He said China, Australia and Japan – the three largest capital markets where the US firm operates – would support its growth plan. Assets under management across seven markets in the region already crossed the US$300 billion mark, double…

Nickel prices fell on Tuesday as a major U.S. bank issued a downbeat forecast for industrial metals next year.   In a research note published Friday, Goldman Sachs said copper prices are expected to remain within a range of $10,000 to $11,000 per metric ton during 2026–2027 due to a supply surplus, though the long-term outlook for industrial metals remains positive.   The bank highlighted three key factors likely to cap copper’s upside:   Chinese buyers may reduce purchases if prices exceed $11,000 per ton, as seen in Q2 2024; high U.S. inventories could quickly rebalance the market if price…

Japan’s largest power company is reportedly dangling a 100 billion yen (US$654 million) payout for locals to restart its long-dormant Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in a move critics have called “bribery”.The unprecedented financial support package, originally reported by the Nikkei business newspaper, reflects Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (Tepco) mounting desperation to revive the world’s largest nuclear site more than a decade after the Fukushima disaster, according to analysts.A sprawling complex spread across the coast of the Sea of Japan in Niigata prefecture, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa has stood idle since 2011, when a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami triggered catastrophic meltdowns at Tepco’s Fukushima…

The global copper market has endured a turbulent year, as a series of accidents and shutdowns disrupted supply chains around the world. On September 8, approximately 800,000 tons of wet material flooded multiple levels of the Grasberg Block Cave mine in Papua, Indonesia, forcing a suspension of all underground operations.   The incident marked the latest in a string of disruptions that have hit copper production throughout 2025.   Reports indicate that the flooding reached the level under development, killing two workers. Following the accident, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. declared force majeure, citing its inability to meet contractual obligations due to a…