Business

New Delhi, Sep 30 (PTI) The Finance Ministry on Wednesday said the government will borrow Rs 4.34 lakh crore in the second half of the current fiscal to meet its expenditure requirement amid COVID-19 crisis afflicting the country's economy.

With this, the government will stick to the revised borrowing target for the current fiscal. The Centre had revised the borrowing target to Rs 12 lakh crore in May against Rs 7.8 lakh crore approved in the Budget 2020-21.

BEIJING, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- The continuous and stable recovery of the Chinese economy has given an obvious boost to the world economic growth and is of positive significance to fuel the confidence of the global market, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Wednesday.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks while commenting on the World Bank report titled "From Containment to Recovery: Economic Update for East Asia and the Pacific, October 2020," which forecasted China's economy to grow by 2 percent this year, up from the 1-percent growth projection released in June.

30 Sep 2020; MEMO: The Palestinian government and India’s representative to Palestine, Sunil Kumar, yesterday signed protocols worth $36.1 million to build developmental projects in the fields of education, health and media.

Palestinian Minister of Education, Marwan Awartani, and Kumar signed the first agreement to build two schools in the governorates of Jenin and Tubas at a value of $2.1 million.

New Delhi, Sep 30 (PTI) Contracting for the sixth consecutive month, the output of eight core infrastructure sectors dropped by 8.5 per cent in August, mainly due to decline in production of steel, refinery products and cement.

The production of eight core sectors had contracted 0.2 per cent in August 2019, showed data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on Wednesday.

Barring coal and fertiliser, all sectors -- crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, steel, cement and electricity -- recorded negative growth in August.

United Nations, Sep 30 (PTI) The Maldives has thanked India for the financial assistance of USD 250 million -- "the single largest financial assistance from a donor" -- to support the island nation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

29 Sep 2020; MEMO: The cigarette market in Kuwait has significantly increased over the past few years with more than 6.6 billion consumed annually, London based Global Data consulting firm said.

The company said the tobacco market in Kuwait grew 298.3 per cent in 2017 compared to the early 1990s.

In 2017, the average annual consumption of cigarettes in Kuwait was 2,315, with an average of six cigarettes per day.

29 Sep 2020; MEMO: A tanker carrying fuel from Iran to Venezuela reached the South American nation’s waters yesterday, Refinitiv Eikondata cited by Reuters shows.

29 Sep 2020; MEMO: Increasing numbers of wealthy Saudis are securing plans to escape the kingdom by purchasing foreign passports in fear of political repression which has been on the rise since Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman came to power.

29 Sep 2020; MEMO: The European Union yesterday expressed its disappointment and concern over the resignation of Lebanon’s prime minister–designate, while urging the Mediterranean country to form a new government in order to obtain financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The EU said that “the Lebanese leaders need to come together and do their best to form the government promptly … It will also be necessary to reach an urgent agreement with the International Monetary Fund.”

29 Sep 2020; MEMO: Iranian and Qatari energy ministers yesterday discussed connecting the two countries’ electricity networks via a submarine cable.

In a virtual meeting, the Qatari minister, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, said that the project was “possible”, adding that a “proposal should be worked on”.

“In my opinion, this idea is practical and it is possible to implement it,” Al-Kaabi added.