State Bank of Pakistan
State Bank of Pakistan’s Interest Rate Hike Catches Pundits by Surprise
April 27, 2026
There’s been an unexpected decision by officials at the State Bank of Pakistan to crank up their interest rate to 11.5% from 10.5%. Pakistan’s central bank rate crested at 22.0% for a whole year until June 2024 and as CPI inflation imploded from a 38.0% in May 2023 all the way to just 0.3% in […] More
Fresh Peace Proposal From Iran as Traffic Through the Straight of Hormuz Remains Blocked
April 27, 2026
(142) The attention of financial markets quickly moved past the the failed politically motivated assassination attempt at the U.S. press corps gala on Saturday night and is focused squarely back on the Middle East war, now in its ninth week. The fresh development in that regard is a report that Iran is offering a new […] More
Surging Oil Price Takes Command of Everything Else
March 9, 2026
(149) At today’s high, the $119.48 peak in West Texas Intermediate oil had leaped by a total 117% in less than three months and was 84% above its closing level on February 27 just before the start of Operation Epic Fury. The price has settled back to $102.4 per barrel currently, still 37% higher than […] More
Attention Shared by Central Bank Decisions & Year-end Data Deluge
December 17, 2025
The dollar rose overnight, led by gains of 0.5% against yen and sterling. The U.S. currency also appreciated 0.2% against the Australian currency and Mexican peso and 0.1% relative to the Swiss franc, euro, kiwi and won. Gold is 0.7% stronger, whereas Bitcoin has softened 0.4%. The price of gold bounced up 1.5%. Ten-year sovereign […] More
Business World Plows On In Spite of Dystopic Newsfeed
December 15, 2025
(161) The coming week will be the last one of 2025 in which financial markets are not heavily affected by year-end factors. A heavy menu of economic data releases, including belated U.S. ones due to the government shutdown. Oftentimes particularly in the early years of the floating exchange rate era, the dollar exhibited a downward […] More
Hopes Up that China-U.S. Truce on Trade Will Extend Beyond November 1st
October 27, 2025
(168) Reports have been optimistic out of Asia where U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent and his Chinese counterparts have been holding talks that will lead to a broader truce to be signed at the end of this week by Presidents Trump and Xi that would avoid a sharply escalated trade war. One hopeful indication has been […] More
Fears Lessen about Oil Supply Fallout from Israeli-Iranian Military Conflict
June 16, 2025
(187) Israeli missile attacks so far have stayed clear of major Iranian oil production installations. Having soared earlier overnight to as high as $77.4 per barrel, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude settled back to $72.07 for a net decline so far of 1.3%. The G7 Summit in Alberta, Canada is underway and so […] More
Persistent Market Nervousness about U.S. Policy Changes
March 10, 2025
(201) U.S. stock market futures show a decline of more than 1% this Monday, and the weighted dollar index has eased another 0.2%, bringing the decline since end-February to 3.4%. The yen gained 0.6% against the dollar overnight. While the 10-year Treasury yield has fallen 26 basis points during the past month, Japan’s 10-year JGB […] More
Pakistani Central Bank Rate Cut
January 27, 2025
Pakistan’s central bank policy rate had been as low as 7.0% from June 2020 until September 2021 and as high as 22% from June 2023 until June 2024 after Pakistani CPI inflation peaked at 38% in May 2023. Today’s rate cut of one percentage point to 12.0% was the sixth reduction since June 2023 but […] More
Softer Dollar and Wild Overnight Session in Equities
January 27, 2025
(207) The dollar fell overnight by 1.2% against the yen, 0.9% versus the Swiss franc, and 0.2% relative to the euro and sterling. The weighted DXY dollar index is 2.6% weaker than its 2025 high touched two weeks ago. Stock markets initially plunged, fed by two significant uncertainties. One was the claim by the Chinese […] More
