*Imran Khan- Man of the Year, departs from china after successful visit
Prime Minister Imran Khan has been named Man of the Year by Jordan’s Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center, has successfully completed his 2-day official visit to China. The Chinese armed forces presented a guard of honour to PM Imran Khan on his departure from Beijing. Earlier in the day, the PM had met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and discussed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations, regional situation, and matters of mutual interests. It is important to note here, Pakistan officials identified that the growth momentum of the Pakistani economy, at 5.5 percent in FY2018 (with an average growth rate of 4.7 percent for period FY 2014-2018), became unsustainable due to rising macroeconomic imbalances i.e. high and increasing fiscal and current account deficits. The twin deficits always persisted in the Pakistani economy, however, in FY2018 trade deficit was historically high both in monetary value ($ 32 billion) and as a percent of GDP (10.1 percent), while the fiscal deficit reached 6.5 percent of GDP. On the other hand Chinese experts showed that during Q1 2019, China’s real GDP grew by 6.4 percent year-on-year, which was the same as that in Q4 2018 but slightly lower than that for the whole of 2018 (6.6%), thus ending the last year’s sustained fall in GDP growth. in China during Q1, the service industry grew by 7.0 percent yearly, down 0.4 percentage points from Q4 last year.
Secondary industry grew by 6.1 percent yearly, up 0.3 percentage points from Q4 last year; its contribution to GDP growth grew from 36.1 percent in 2018 to 36.9 percent. Primary industry grew by 2.7 percent yearly, down 0.8 percentage points from Q4 last year. During the meeting, Imran Khan had thanked the Chinese president and his government for its principled stand on the occupied Kashmir issue. He had briefed the Chinese president about Pakistan’s present condition and said the country had come out of the tough economic situation and would never forget Beijing’s financial cooperation in this regard. He also appreciated the Chinese support under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework. Xi, the Chinese president, had lauded Imran for speaking on China-Pakistan relations during the UN General Assembly’s session.
Inflation In Pakistan (%) (Base 2007-08) | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Period | CPI | Core Inflation | ||||||||
General | Food | Non-food | NFNE* | Trimmed | ||||||
YoY | MoM | YoY | MoM | YoY | MoM | YoY | MoM | YoY | MoM | |
May-19 | 9.1 | 0.8 | 8.7 | 1.1 | 9.4 | 0.6 | 7.2 | 0.4 | 7.5 | 0.4 |
Jun-19 | 8.9 | 0.4 | 8.2 | 0.4 | 9.3 | 0.4 | 7.2 | 0.3 | 7.3 | 0.4 |
Jul-19 | 10.3 | 2.3 | 9.2 | 1.5 | 11.1 | 2.8 | 7.8 | 1.7 | 8.0 | 1.7 |
Aug-19 | 11.6 | 1.4 | 11.9 | 2.6 | 11.5 | 0.6 | 8.2 | 0.5 | 8.5 | 0.6 |
Sep-19 | 12.6 | 0.8 | 14.3 | 1.5 | 11.4 | 0.2 | 8.2 | 0.4 | 9.2 | 0.5 |
He said both states enjoyed close friendly relations and cooperated with each other in different fields. The prime minister had also met the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Li Zhanshu, wherein he discussed India’s unlawful measures in occupied Kashmir that have created a humanitarian crisis. The premier had added that there was a dire need to remove the curfew imposed since the valley’s special status was revoked. The NPC chairman reiterated support for Pakistan’s core issues of national interest. A day prior, PM Imran had held bilateral talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in a meeting that revolved primarily around the strengthening of bilateral economic partnership. During the meeting, the two ally nations had agreed to strengthen their socio-economic ties and inked a number of contracts and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).
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Chinese PM Li reiterated China’s support for Pakistan’s issues of core national interest source said. PM Imran Khan emphasised that expeditious completion of the CPEC projects was the foremost priority of 11his government. He maintained that the second phase of the CPEC will be instrumental in reinforcing and consolidating Pakistan’s economic development and pave the way for enhanced Chinese investments in Pakistan. Premier Li was also apprised of the actions undertaken recently to fast-track the CPEC projects and to push the development momentum in Gwadar.
Man Of The Year
The prime minister has been honoured in the 11th annual issue of ‘The Muslim 500: The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims’ magazine. This publication seeks to ascertain the influence some Muslims have on nearly 1.93 billion people who share their faith across the world. Among the 500 influential Muslims, the magazine highlights the top 50 which are led by the overall top two personalities entitled ‘Man of the Year’ and ‘Woman of the Year’. The publication selects Muslim individuals from a range of categories of influence — 13 in total — including scholarly, political, administration of religious affairs, business, science and technology.