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WB favours forex reserves` funding for infrastructure
New Delhi, Feb 07: Expressing concerns over low returns from over USD 178 billion forex reserves of India, World Bank has recommended that a part of these funds should be utilised in the high-return infrastructure sector.
"India can utilise a part of its forex reserves for setting up a fund for the infrastructure sector on the pattern of Singapore," World Bank Vice President, South Asia, Praful Patel told a news agency.
Singapore has utilised a part of its forex reserves through publicly held government investment corporation holding diversified portfolio of securities.
After recommendations of the planning commission, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has also set up a group headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Kumar Jha to look in to the partial use of forex reserves for infrastructure.
Democrats press Bush over yen weakness
The new Democratic leadership of the US Congress is pressing the Bush administration to coerce Tokyo into acting to strengthen the yen, claiming the currency's weakness is bolstering Japanese imports at the expense of US manufacturers. Some have gone so far as to allege that Japanese policymakers are manipulating the currency to subsidise exporters, and are threatening to withhold the president's fast-track negotiating authority over the Doha round of world trade negotiations when it expires in the spring. .
No forex for food imports(08-02-07)
HARARE - Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, is facing chronic food shortages due to a deepening shortages of hard currency needed to import more than 850,000 metric tonnes of grain.
The latest report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWSNET, painted a gloomy outlook of a nation desperately short on food. The report said the food security would worsen markedly unless the country could urgently raise the desperately needed hard currency to bankroll food imports.
Preliminary reports from the crop and food supply assessment indicate that raising hard currency in the country's current dire economic situation will be "enormously challenging." The organization said the impact of shortages has been exacerbated by the Grain Marketing Board state monopoly's limited capacity to distribute throughout the country the amount of grain that is available.
Fixed exchange rate drops to $10.9820
Mexico City, February 1st.- Mexico's fixed exchange rate Thursday was set at 10.9820 pesos per dollar (ppd), reflecting a decline compared to Wednesday's final quote at 11.0382 ppd, according to information provided by the Central Bank (Banxico). The fixed exchange rate is applicable to the solvency of obligations denominated in foreign currency payments in Mexican territory and will be published in the Official Gazette on February 2, 2007. (Con información de Finsat/Esteban Rojas H./GCE) .
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