Haque Specialized Group's News

Asian shares slipped Friday following a drop on Wall Street as the stronger dollar sent Japanese issues lower and the arrest of an executive at Samsung weighed on Korean stocks, reports AP. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.6 per cent to 19,238.81 in morning trading. The South Korean’s Kospi edged down 0.1 per cent to 2,079.60. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell nearly 0.2 per cent to 5,807.20.  Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.1 per cent to 24,082.17, while the Shanghai Composite was also down 0.1 per cent at 3,225.75. The S&P 500 fell 2.03 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 2,347.22. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 7.91 points, less than 0.1 per cent, to set another record at 20,619.77.  The Nasdaq composite dipped 4.54 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 5,814.90. Benchmark US crude rose 10 cents to $53.46 a barrel in New York. It rose 25 cents to settle at $53.36 per barrel Thursday. Brent crude, the international standard, added 13 cents to $53.78 a barrel. The dollar fell slightly to 113.42 yen from 113.61 yen late Thursday. The euro rose to $1.0672 from $1.0635, according to Reuters.....

Published at: 2017-02-17 00:00:06

Oil prices edged up on Friday, lifted by a report that producer club OPEC could extend an output cut aimed at reining in a global fuel supply overhang. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were trading at $55.73 per barrel at 0125 GMT, up 8 cents from their last close. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures, were up 7 cents at $53.43 per barrel. The OPEC and other producers including Russia have agreed to cut output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) during the first half of 2017, and estimates suggest compliance by OPEC is around 90 per cent. The production cuts are aimed at curbing global oversupply that has dogged markets since 2014. Yet despite action so far, inventories remain bloated and supplies high. To help rebalance the market, OPEC sources said that the supply reduction pact could be extended or deepened if all major producers showed "effective cooperation". Crude inventories rose by 9.5 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 10. Gasoline stocks rose 2.8 million barrels.  The bloated stocks come as US crude oil production C-OUT-T-EIA has risen 6.5 per cent since mid-2016 to 8.98 million bpd, according to Reuters.....

Published at: 2017-02-17 00:00:06

WASHINGTON, Feb 15: US President Donald Trump responded early Wednesday morning to allegations, first published Tuesday night by The New York Times, that members of his inner circle were in frequent contact with top intelligence officials in the Russian government in the year leading up to the November election. As usual, Trump took to Twitter to unleash a rant denying the charges while attacking the credibility of the sources, while looking for support in other outlets, report agencies. In a series of tweets the President called the highly-sourced allegations "non-sense," "conspiracy theories," "blind hatred," and "an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign." Trump singled out MSNBC and CNN as "fake news" while praising Fox News' "Fox & Friends" as "great!" And he attacked The New York Times and the Washington Post as "failing," which is wholly false. Meanwhile, US Secret Service chief Joseph Clancy will retire in early March, the elite agency tasked with protecting the US president said Tuesday. A former head of US President Barack Obama's detail, Clancy returned from a previous retirement to steer the agency two years ago, amid outcry over several security lapses at the White House that tarnished the agency's image. Clancy-who prior to his first retirement had served the agency for nearly three decades-will officially step down once more on March 04, and new US President Donald Trump will appoint his successor. The Secret Service, made up of some 6,500 people, is also responsible for the security of former presidents and vice presidents, as well as foreign heads of state and government on official visits. Since the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy, it has additionally protected presidential candidates.....

Published at: 2017-02-16 00:00:10

The World Bank (WB) has emphasised measuring the shared prosperity of the countries, including Bangladesh, instead of the Gini index to have more realistic scenario of income inequality of the population groups. "The shared prosperity will give us more realistic data on the income inequality situation of a country. Because this will measure the income growth difference between the lowest 40 per cent income group of the country and the total population," WB Lead Economist Dr Zahid Hussain said. He said the Gini index reflects the average income level of the total population of a nation, which is a difficult method to understand the income situation of its different income groups -poor, lower-middle income, higher-middle income and rich. The WB has started measuring the shared prosperity globally from last financial year instead of the Gini coefficient for understanding the income inequality scenario of the nations. He told these while presenting a paper titled "Development Progress and Challenges: A South Asian Perspective" at a workshop for the members of the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF) in Dhaka. The WB Dhaka office and the ERF jointly organised the workshop. Country Director of WB Bangladesh office Qimiao Fan, Economist Mustafa K Mujeri, Joint Editor of The Financial Express Shamsul Huq Zahid, Business Editor of the Daily Prothom Alo Shawkat Hossain, and ERF President Saif Islam Dilal and General Secretary Ziaur Rahman also spoke at the workshop. Dr Zahid Hussain said the shared prosperity premium in Bangladesh between 2005 and 2010 was 0.4 percentage point positive, which reflects that income inequality of the country's bottom 40 per cent people (in terms of income) has not increased. According to Mr Hussain, during the period the income growth of Bangladesh's total population was 1.3 per cent, while that of the lower 40 per cent population were 1.8 per cent. He said: "The Gini coefficient between 1990 and 2013 showed that Bangladesh's income inequality has increased. But when we calculate shared prosperity, it shows that the country's income inequality has dropped." The WB lead economist said Bangladesh's Gini coefficient increased to 32.1 per cent in 2013 from 28.9 per cent in 1990, while the shared prosperity premium was reported 0.4 percentage points positive. India's shared prosperity was 0.5 percentage points negative from 2004 to 2011, while Pakistan's shared prosperity premium was 0.3 percentage points positive. Dr Hussain said if Bangladesh wants to ensure sustainable and higher growth, its productivity needs to be boosted and growth efficiency requires to be enhanced. In his presentation, the WB lead economist said Bangladesh's export diversification did not take place properly over the years, for which the country needs to take prompt actions to secure its economy from any global shocks. Bangladesh had lots of policies, reforms and regulations, but their implementation has been very poor, affecting the country's potential development, he added. The WB country director said Bangladesh's main challenge was creating employments for nearly 20 million fresh job-seekers every year as well as ensuring policy reforms for making the country's business environment friendlier. He said the WB has been ready to provide policy support to various financial sector and energy sector reforms. Mr Mujeri said per capita income of people, better infrastructure, integration among domestic and global trade and economic scenario, and ensuring effective institutions, including governance and rule of law, are the key issues to uplift Bangladesh's economy. Mr Shamsul Huq Zahid analysed the business and economic reporting techniques for the journalists. kabirhumayan10@gmail.com....

Published at: 2017-02-16 00:00:10

Customs intelligence launched a hunt for seizing 16 duty-free cars imported by former employees of the World Bank (WB) under a facility enjoyed by privileged persons, including diplomats.   Officials said the customs intelligence and investigation directorate (CIID) Wednesday sent in a request to the WB Dhaka office for providing detailed information and documents, including present status of those 16 cars, for a scrutiny of alleged duty evasion and non-compliance with customs law. In its letter addressed to the WB country director, the CIID intelligence team has sought information of those cars within a week's time. Through an investigation the customs authority found those cars registered with the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and imported by privileged persons of the WB under a provision of customs law. Privileged persons working with international organisations or with the development partners can obtain passbooks from customs authority to import their products and goods free of duty. Customs officials have found "abuse" of the facility as they suspect a number of privileged persons sold out their duty-free imported cars to third parties in violation of the customs law. CIID in the letter to the country director of the WB said, "The World Bank mission does have the legal responsibility to settle the passbooks and also durable goods, including the vehicles, before the departure of their employees on completion of assignments."   The customs officials said the passbooks had not been surrendered and the vehicles, consequently, remained untraced. They said the customs intelligence team would seize the 16 vehicles whenever located in the ongoing search operation. "Such an act of noncompliance is punishable offence under the customs act 1969 and the money-laundering prevention act 2012," the CIID wrote in the letter to the WB country chief. Responding to a query from the FE, Qimiao Fan, the WB country director for Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, said: 'The World Bank Dhaka office has returned 35 passbooks not submitted earlier when the respective expatriate staff left the Dhaka office, which also include nine passbooks from the names mentioned in the letter sent today to the World Bank from the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate. "We are checking and locating the status of the remaining outstanding passbooks. The World Bank has asked National Board of Revenue (NBR) for a 6-month time period for renewal and surrender of the rest of the passbooks, and will work closely with the NBR to resolve any discrepancies." CIID director-general Moinul Khan said it was noticed that some of the privileged persons in the international organisations were getting involved in duty-evasion. "Already we have seized some of the cars and legal process against the persons involved in the corruption is underway," the DG said. The CIID is scrutinising the allegation of duty evasion by some of the privileged persons of the WB, he added. The customs law says when a privileged person leaves Bangladesh without returning the cars or other durable articles included in his or her customs passbook or without surrendering the customs passbook, the head of organisation concerned to which the privileged person belonged shall be held responsible for disposal of cars or other durable articles and for surrendering the customs passbooks within sixty days from the date of occurrence of the event as mentioned in clause (a) or clause (b) of sub-rule (1), as the case may be, and the national board of revenue may, on satisfactory grounds, extend this time-limit for a further reasonable period. Names of the privileged persons who imported those 16 cars are Pramita das Gupta (IFC), Sakuntala Akmeemana, Kathaynoel Khuu, Vinaya Sworoop, Ousmane Seckl, Jose Edgardo Lodezcamdos, Mirva Tuulia, Dayid, Grina Igorcyna Nicdrbcrger, Mridula Singh, Tahseen Sayed Khan, Mayumi Isogain, Tania Mana Mytraczcnko, Ceren Ozer, Fabio Pitaluga, Helen Joy Craig. Customs officials said personal penalty for not refunding the passbooks may start from Tk 50,000 up to criminal proceedings.   doulot_akter@yahoo.com....

Published at: 2017-02-16 00:00:10