Global trade

The global bond investors interpreted the prime minister's appeal as an indicator that the country was going to default on foreign debt repayments. Islamabad is scheduled to repay $1 billion against a maturing Sukuk on December 5, 2022, The , Express Tribune reported. The prices of any country's bonds plunge and their yields - the rate of return - soar while they are facing a financial crisis and vice versa.

The issues of both trade and humanitarian assistance have been in focus since Pakistan's Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said earlier this week that Islamabad can consider importing vegetables and food items from India to cope with shortages due to the floods, which have killed more than 1,000 people and affected 33 million.

Both sides had set out the broad objectives for trade talks aiming to "deepen our trade and investment relationship, advance mutual trade priorities based on shared values, and promote innovation and inclusive economic growth for our workers and businesses", Deputy US trade representative Sarah Bianchi said in a statement late Wednesday.

After days of frenzied investor speculation and signs of growing central bank anxiety, the Federal Reserve is expected to increase the official cost of borrowing by 0.75 percentage points for the first time since 1994. The Fed meeting will be preceded by an emergency meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) to discuss crashing bond prices in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

The Covid-19 lockdowns in China, especially in Shanghai and Kunshan, where many laptop manufacturing lines are located, will further cause shipment correction in April. Compared to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), original design manufacturers (ODMs) currently face more issues related to manufacturing resource allocation than component shortage impacts, according to Counterpoint Research.

Quectel's cellular IoT module revenue grew more than 100 per cent YoY in Q4 2021. Strong partnerships, superior service and a wide range of product offerings are supporting its growth. Quectel launched a new ODM brand, Ikotek, targeting the US market.Telit made a strong comeback after a relatively weaker performance in recent history.

In this regard, Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida announced an investment of Yen 3.5 trillion ($42 billion) in India over five years during the India-Japan Annual Summit in Delhi. Under an MoU, Suzuki Corporation would set up an electric car manufacturing unit in Gujarat.

Malaysia is expected to be the largest beneficiary among the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members from the RCEP in terms of export gains, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying. The country is expected to see a $200 million increase in export gains, making the RCEP a vital tool in recovering from the economic disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.

Noting that the plant-based foods industry offers a major opportunity to address climate change, food insecurity, and malnutrition, and public health risk (including pandemics and antimicrobial resistance), a newly-formed body said it can be a major industry catering to both domestic and global markets.

Commodity prices were already on a steady rise in 2021 and early 2022 thanks to the loose monetary policies several leading countries adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the Ukraine–Russia conflict that broke out on February 24 has spread panic waves through the world of commodities and resulted in an all-out commodity price shock globally.