WASHINGTON: Unemployment rate in the USA is not worse despite the fact that many industries laid off their workers. Only 20,000 new jobs were added to the market last month while many companies had laid off workers.  However, the jobless rate fell from two tenths to 3.8 percent, its lowest level since October, according to the Labor Department report.

Meanwhile, hourly wages saw their biggest gains in nearly a decade, more evidence of the tight labor market.

HETAUDA: Though Nepal is known as an agricultural country and a country rich in water resources, around 800 thousand arable land remains unirrigated, accord to a report by the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation.

Of total 2.2 million hectares of arable land, only 1.4 million hectare has irrigation facility. Sources of irrigation in Nepal include underground water, well, canal and river.

MANGALBARE: The construction of a fast track connecting Ilam Bazar to Jhapa’s Birtamod has been completed. With the construction of the 10-kilometer project from Golakharka Bhanjyang to Belase via Bhangtar and Rakse,  people have now an option to the existing 86-kilometer route to reach Birtamod via Mechi Highway.

With this, people can opt for the shorter route of 47 kilometers to reach Birtamod in an hour. It takes nearly three hours to reach Birtamod from Ilam via Mechi Highway.

The project was implemented under the Infrastructure Development Program last year at a cost of around Rs 1.5 million. The District Coordination Committee had provided Rs 250 thousands for the project. Under the Strategic Road Plan, Rs 10 million has been allocated to further upgrade the route, according to Mahesh Basnet, Mayor of Ilam Municipality .

BHARATPUR: Prakash Pant, a resident of Bharatpur Metropolis-18, Gunjanagar have made an income of Rs one million in less that three months. He has been successful to make a lucrative income by selling ‘Red Rose’ meant for the Valentine Day.

According to him, he made a net profit of 300,000 from rose farming. “I sell at least one thousand to 12 hundred sticks of this flower from my farm”.

There is a demand of 20,000 stick roses in Chitwan on the occasion of Valentine Day,  said Pant, who is also the Chairman of the Floriculture Association Nepal, Chitwan Chapter. He usually starts cultivating this flower from the month of April and May, and yields production from November. He has been supplying roses to major cities of Nepal, including Chitwan, Pokhara and Kathmandu.

In the recent days, with the celebration of ‘Valentine Day’ gaining popularity in the country, the demand of ‘Red Rose’ has also gone up. However, Nepal has not been able to produce sufficient flowers to meet the growing demand.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde in Dubai on Sunday for talks on issues which have held up bailout negotiations, a Pakistani minister said on Saturday.

Pakistan is seeking its 13th bailout since the late 1980s to deal with a current account deficit that threatens to trigger a balance of payments crisis, but talks have been delayed by difficulties in reconciling IMF reform demands with Islamabad’s fears the push is too drastic and could hurt economic growth.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told Reuters Khan will meet IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai.

“This will give us a chance to understand the IMF views and we will be able to give our version to Lagarde,” said Chaudhry, who will accompany Khan to Dubai along with Finance Minister Asad Umar.

Chaudhry said Pakistan wants any agreed bailout package, which would be the country’s second IMF bailout since 2013, to be the nation’s last such economic rescue by the IMF.

Officials had expected talks to conclude in November but they have been delayed as Islamabad harbors concerns that the programme could derail the economy and Khan’s plans for his term in office.

Pakistan has in the meantime sought financial assistance from Middle Eastern allies such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who have loaned it in excess of $10 billion to ease the pressure on its dwindling foreign currency reserves.

“The problem is not the (IMF) deal, the problem is the condition attached to the deal,” Chaudhry said.

“We don’t want conditions that hurt Pakistan’s growth prospects. We want a fair deal that can actually help Pakistan in the short term, without affecting our long-term economic goals.”

The IMF talks come amid a worsening macroeconomic outlook, with growth expectations slashed for the current fiscal year to about 4 percent from 6 percent previously forecast.

On Saturday, Pakistan also revised its growth figures for the last financial year to 5.2 percent from a previously reported 5.8 percent, after a sharp cut in the figure for large-scale manufacturing, the statistics office said.

When the original estimate was reported in April by the government of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi it was hailed as the strongest growth in 13 years.

Before the revisions to last year’s GDP figures, Pakistan’s deficit to GDP ratio, estimated at 5.8 percent in 2017-18, was expected to hit 6.9 percent this year, according to IMF data.

Reuters

HONGKONG: The death of Gerald Cotton, 30, the Chief Operating Officer (CEO) of Quadirga and co-founder of Canada’s biggest crypto currency exchange, having a sole password, has left a huge stash of crypto currencies locked off from the people who own them. He died because of complications arising from Crohn’s disease while traveling in India, according to CNN.
Quadriga, which is based on Vancouver, has said it’s unable to gain access to $145 million of bitcoin and other digital assets, according to CNN. Many of the digital currencies held by Quadriga are stored offline in accounts known as “cold wallets,” a way of protecting them from hackers. Cotten is the only person with access to the wallets, according to the company.

Cotten’s death has plunged Quadriga into crisis and left it struggling to figure out how to refund more than 100,000 of its users. On Tuesday, the company said it was granted creditor protection in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court as it tries to sort out its financial mess. Cotten’s widow, Jennifer Robertson, said that the laptop that Cotten used to run the currency exchange is encrypted, according to a copy of her affidavit posted online by cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk.

Quadriga also owes about 70 million Canadian dollars ($53 million) in cash that it’s unable to pay back, Jeniffer said, citing difficulties accessing funds through the traditional banking system, CNN has said.

(With inputs from CNN)

BANKE: Some government agencies and local governments were found to have procured goods and services without soliciting bids. The 2018/19 report of the Office of Auditor General – the constitutional budget oversight agency has painted a bleak picture of most of the government agencies based in the district.
It is mandatory for the concerned public entity to call quotations for open competition. Nevertheless, the competition has been made among limited forms and entities. Such practices have created ample spaces for fiduciary malaises, the report stated. According to the OAG report, most of the district-based government offices were found to have purchased the goods in bit and piece against the procurement rule.
According to the Public Procurement Act, the procurement of goods worth above a certain limit should be done at once. Most of the government offices and local governments are found to proceed the procurement without master plan and annual procurement plan. The offices were also found to have apathetic to execute the given responsibilities, reads the report. It has affected revenue collection and protection of public properties as well as relegated the public service to backburner.
The status of fiscal transparency is worse in local government than in government offices. However, the government offices are also found working in an unsystematic manner. The Treasury Single Account Office also noted that some offices were found maintaining database in a haphazard way. Even the District Administration Office is not found systematic in genuinely maintaining data and records for monitoring the government offices and taking actions.

NEW YORK: Oil prices rose about 3 percent on Friday on upbeat U.S. jobs data and signs that U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan exports have helped tighten supply, then extending gains after weekly data showed U.S. drillers cut the number of oil rigs.

Brent crude oil futures rose $1.91 a barrel, or 3.14 percent, to settle at $62.75 a barrel. The international benchmark notched a weekly gain of about 1.9 percent. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures ended the session at $55.26, up $1.47 a barrel or 2.73 percent and gained about 3 percent on the week.

Prices climbed to session highs after General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes energy services firm reported that U.S. energy firms cut the number of operating oil rigs for a fourth week in the past five, bringing the count to the lowest in eight months. Last week’s data showed the rig count in January fell the most in a month since April 2016.

Oil prices got a boost from Wall Street after surprisingly strong U.S. job growth data fed demand for equities.  Washington imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s Petróleos de Venezuela SA this week, keeping tankers stuck at ports. On Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department provided details.

“We are beginning to see the impact to crude supplies from the sanctions on Venezuela. It has driven up domestic crude prices, cutting into refiner margins,” Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston, said.

“That, combined with Saudi cuts and Libyan production declines has changed market sentiment as we appear to be moving toward a better balanced supply situation.”

Some U.S. refiners have begun reducing crude processing as sanctions have boosted oil costs and as gasoline margins crashed to their lowest in nearly a decade, market sources told Reuters on Thursday. In January, Saudi Arabia pumped 350,000 bpd less than in December, a Reuters survey showed.

Financial markets also gained support from comments on Twitter by U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, saying he would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping soon to try to resolve a trade standoff. But Trump later warned he could postpone talks if a deal remains elusive.

China’s trade delegation said the latest round of talks with the United States made “important progress”, state news agency Xinhua reported. “Many traders recognize that sense is likely to prevail and a deal will be struck after the summit – although the shape of any deal will continue to drive a jittery market,” Cantor Fitzgerald Europe said in a note.

Disappointing factory activity threatens global growth
But a survey showed China’s factory activity shrank by the most in almost three years in January, reinforcing fears about fuel demand in the world’s second-largest economy. Analysts believe the oil market will be more balanced in 2019 after supply cuts from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Iraq’s oil exports averaged 3.649 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, down slightly from the previous month, the oil ministry said on Friday.

(REUTERS)

KATHMANDU: Almost 24,000 people have applied for the post of Employment Coordinator of the Employment Service Centre to be established in every local level. As of Friday, 23,986 people had applied for the post across all the seven provinces, according to Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security. The post available is one each in the 753 local level government units.
The applicants will now be shortlisted through an automated computer system based on the set criteria, said Coordinator of Prime Minister Employment Program Prakash Dahal. After the preliminary screening, the selected candidates will go through computer skills examination.
The employment coordinator will work to collect data of the unemployed persons in the respective local level, update it and provide identity card to the listed unemployed person. It will also facilitate employment opportunities for them while making recommendations for various kinds of skills oriented training.

TOKYO – There were 161 jobs for every 100 jobseekers on average last year in Japan, the highest ratio since 1973, highlighting the labor shortage in the world’s third-largest economy and its ageing society. According to labor ministry data released on Friday, the ratio was even higher in December, at 163 jobs available for every 100 people looking for work.
The Japanese labor market has been tight for many years as the workforce shrinks with a rapidly ageing population and a low childbirth rate. country’s unemployment rate also remained at low levels in December, hitting 2.4 percent, a 0.1-percentage point drop from the previous month, according to separate data from the internal affairs ministry.Along with a labour shortage, Japan has also been engaged in a lengthy battle against deflation.Last month, the Bank of Japan lowered its inflation forecasts for the fiscal year ending March next year to 0.9 percent from 1.4 percent.

Japan’s economy shrank in the three months to September after a string of natural disasters hit consumer spending and exports. But analysts expect a rebound in the last quarter of the year thanks to a broadly solid global economy. AFP