Tag: Rates

HONG KONG - The world's highest hotel opened its doors in Hong Kong on Tuesday, housed in the city's tallest skyscraper and offering unrivalled panoramic views of the world famous Victoria Harbour.
Towering some 490 metres (1,600 feet) above the bustling, chaotic streets of the Southern Chinese city, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel is making a grand comeback after temporarily closing in 2008.
Visitors peered out of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the 118th floor of the International

KARACHI - Offering its clients rates as high as 9.89 percent on deposits as low as Rs 10,000, Bank Alfalah's growing Islamic banking group with 80 branches is working towards providing a solution to tackle persistent inflation.
The Group targets, in particular, depositors who would otherwise be neglected and receive low returns on their small deposit holdings. As a result, depositors in Falah Mahana Amdani are receiving superior returns in comparison to the rates offered on

LAHORE - At the beginning of the sacred month of Muharram, a month of sorrow and grief, Maulana Fida Hussain Hafizabadi of Muridke gets very busy. He does not even have time for his close relatives and had to ask his son-in-law to wait until the end of April to see him.
Hafizabadi is not the sole example of such a pressing schedule, as hundreds of clerics from various sects travel across the country during the months of Muharram, Safar and Rabi-ul-Awwal. On the face of it, the

BEIJING - China raised interest rates for the second time in just over six weeks, intensifying a battle in fast-expanding economy against stubbornly high inflation that threatens to unsettle global markets.
The timing was a surprise, coming on the final day of China's Lunar New Year holiday, but investors have long expected more monetary tightening as Beijing struggles to rein in price pressures and ward off a property bubble in an economy that grew at a double-digit pace last

GUJRANWALA - The Gujranwala divisional commissioner has directed the Quaid-e-Azam Divisional Public School (QDPS) not to enhance its fees for at least one year and also urged all private educational institutes to freeze their fee structure for the same period.
Presiding over a meeting of the board of governors of the QDPS, he added that the provincial government had been taking concrete measures to enhance the literacy rate and improve facilities in the educational institutes. He

ISLAMABAD - The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has successfully securing concessional rates of stamp duty and registration fee for Real Estate Investment Trust properties in Punjab and Sindh.
In Punjab the stamp duty on REIT property purchases has been reduced from two percent to 0.5 percent. On REIT property sales the duty has been cut from two percent to one percent. In Sindh, the stamp duty on purchases has been reduced from three percent to 0.5 percent

BEIJING - China's central bank on Saturday raised interest rates for the second time in three months as authorities ramped up efforts to curb borrowing, rein in property prices and tame inflation.
The People's Bank of China said in a brief one-line statement that it will increase the one-year lending and deposit rates by 25 basis points each. The move takes the rates to 5.81 percent and 2.75 percent respectively from Sunday.
In October, policymakers raised rates for the

ISLAMABAD: The government has raised the sum of insurance for an emigrant from Rs 0.3 million to Rs one million as the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BEOE) and State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan (SLICP) signed a revised contract, to be effective from January 1, 2011. According to a letter sent to Pakistan Overseas Employment Promoters Association (POEPA) and other concerned departments, BEOE has informed that after detailed discussions with the stakeholders,

MADRID - Jose Mourinho on Saturday rated 2010 as "the best year of my career" after guiding his former club Inter Milan to the Italian league, Cup and Champions League titles.
"If I had to give 2010 a mark from 1 to 10 it would be an 11," the ever modest Portuguese coach told a press conference here. "I won everything with Inter. And then with Real Madrid every possibility is still available. The championship is open, we are still in the (Spanish) Cup, and the Champions

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani traders have inked fresh contracts on new rates to import cotton from India, after Indian exporters delivered little under previous deals on lower prices, Pakistani industry officials said on Wednesday.
Textile firms in the world's third-largest cotton consumer have banked on neighbouring India to meet demand after massive summer floods damage to the domestic crop caused an estimated shortfall of approximately four million tonnes.
Pakistan's textile

LAHORE: Freight transporters have spiked their transport charges by between 14 and 26 percent during this week, after the government decision to raise the prices of petroleum products between 6.8 to 8.9 percent.
Industry experts have concluded that the increase in POL prices and transport rates would have an adverse impact on the price of all raw materials ramping up prices by perhaps as high as 30 to 35 percent. This would have a massive effect on the profit margins of local