
France embassy's team visits ZTBL
The delegation called on Tahir Yaqoob Bhatti, President/CEO ZTBL.
The visiting dignitaries were given a comprehensive overview of the bank's operations through a documentary presentation, followed by a visit to ZTBL's Farm and Staff College.
The French delegation included Dr François Gary, Managing Partner of PHYLUM-a globally renowned management consulting and IT-based company in France; Laurent Chopiton, Head of the Economic Department at the French Embassy; Luc Boyer, Deputy Economic Counsellor and Leonora Dalloshi from the French Embassy.
ZTBL, the country's largest and premier agricultural financing institution, extended a warm welcome to the distinguished visitors. The Bank expressed its privilege in hosting Dr François Gary, a renowned international expert in policy and strategy for food safety, animal health, and welfare. His consultancy work spans collaborations with private firms, national authorities, and global institutions including the World Bank, European Union, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
During his stay in Pakistan, Dr François Gary is scheduled to visit all provincial headquarters in the country to engage with stakeholders on livestock development and food security.
President Bhatti later accompanied the delegation to ZTBL's model agri farm, where they were briefed on the Bank's initiatives such as demonstration plots for various crops, rain water harvesting integrated with drip irrigation project, kitchen gardening units, machinery for value addition of fruits & vegetables and fish farming.
They also lauded the Bank's Mobile Van Service, which brings banking and advisory services to remote and underserved areas, reaching farmers who may be reluctant or unable to visit bank branches. .
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Business Recorder
20 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Former P@SHA chief recognised as ‘Pride of Pakistan'
KARACHI: Muhammad Zohaib Khan, former chairman of Pakistan's IT industry association P@SHA, has been recognized as the Pride of Pakistan for his services to the country's IT industry. His announcement was made on the eve of 78th Independence Day Celebrations at Jinnah Stadium, Islamabad. Muhammad Zohaib Khan was the only P@SHA chairman and one of a few businessmen from the IT industry who were given the recognition. He has been associated with the IT industry for over two decades. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025


Business Recorder
21 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Is Gold Standard coming back?
Several countries have begun to trade in currencies other than the dollar as the US-led West continues to use punitive sanctions as a foreign policy tool — sanctions designed to throttle trade, strangle fund transfers through the Western controlled SWIFT payment system and freeze assets — physical and liquid assets. This trend has gathered considerable momentum after the US-led West imposed sanctions against powerful countries like Russia and China leading to their decision to strengthen an available forum, Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS), with its expanding membership (including Iran) which President Trump has openly declared a war against. In recent months' Western attention has riveted on China procuring gold while reducing its investments in US treasuries/bonds by about 300 billion dollars - still a drop in the ocean as China's total holdings of US bonds are over USD 3 trillion, which have suffered a rate decline due to the tariffs announced by President Trump on Liberation Day. This has led to discussions on whether some countries intend to revert back to the gold standard, defined as fixing the price for gold in their local paper currency rather than pegging it to the dollar or the Euro. The gold standard reduced uncertainty in trade with price imbalances between trading countries offset by a balance of payment adjustment mechanism as gold, used to pay for imports, reduced the money supply of importing nations leading to deflation and thereby making them more competitive; while importation of gold by net exporters increased money supply causing inflation and making them less competitive. To put it from a historical perspective, the demise of the gold standard began soon after the end of World War II as the United States emerged as the largest creditor nation in the world. It was initially replaced by what was referred to as the gold exchange standard that allowed the dollar as a reserve currency but exchangeable for gold at the rate fixed by the US – an option that was available to central banks but not to firms or individual firms. Initially, this rate was set at 35 dollars per ounce. However, some countries at the time opted to impose trade restrictions to protect their reserves and exchange rates. French President Charles de Gaulle began reducing the dollar reserves held by the Banque de France (French central bank) and exchanging them for gold at the official rate, which led to a sustained balance of payments crisis in the US culminating in President Nixon's decision on 15 August 1971 to end US dollar convertibility to gold and replace it with a system which allowed for periodic devaluation of the dollar against gold. In December 1971 the US dollar was devalued to USD 38 per ounce, in October 1973 it was further devalued to USD 42.22 and as a measure of the failure of this measure the dollar was then floated. By 1976 October, the US officially changed the definition of the US dollar and references to gold were removed from the statutes. But countries have continued to cite gold as a component of their reserves to this day, including Pakistan. One advantage of the gold standard was that it took control of issuing paper money out of the hands of officials — officials who can be easily manipulated by economic team leaders guided less by economic and more by political considerations — as it allowed the quantity of gold held to act as a limit to further issuance of paper currency, thereby avoiding the threat of inflation. Pakistan as a case in point bears testimony to the misuse of discretionary powers by State Bank of Pakistan, which accounts for prohibitive conditions imposed by donor agencies on monetary policy (discount rate as well as the external value of the rupee). However, it is relevant to note that a 2012 study disabused those nostalgic about the good days of the gold standard after two-thirds of economic historians rejected the notion that the gold standard was 'effective in stabilising prices and moderating business-cycle fluctuations during the nineteenth century' and instead they maintained that the gold standard deepened the 1929 depression. Be that as it may, reserves cited by countries include not only US dollar/Euro reserves but also gold reserves. Today the largest gold reserves are held by the US (8133 tons), followed by Germany 3350 tons, Italy 2451.8 tons, France 2436 tons, Russia 2330 tons and China 2299 tons. On 31 July, perhaps as a countermeasure to reported China's gold purchases, the US imposed a 39 percent tariff on one kilogram and 100-ounce gold bars from Switzerland with immediate effect. The impact was very well argued in a tweet by endgame macro: 'a US Customs ruling reclassified these bars, the exact formats COMEX accepts for delivery, into a tariffed category. That's critical because Switzerland is the world's largest gold refining hub, and a substantial share of the physical gold that underpins COMEX futures flows from there. Within hours of the news, premiums for New York gold futures jumped above the spot price, signalling that deliverable supply into the US market had abruptly tightened. Swiss refiners have already slowed or halted shipments, further compounding the squeeze. At its core, this is about leverage and strategic positioning. The US is applying pressure on Switzerland while giving domestic refiners a direct pricing advantage in kilo and 100 ounce formats. That could lock in a higher New York futures premium, even if global spot prices hold steady. By effectively capping imports of these bar types, the move raises the stakes for COMEX short sellers, whose ability to source bars for delivery just got more complicated. Alternative routes such as shipping 400 ounce bars to London for recasting in the US, or rerouting through non-Swiss refineries will take time, limiting throughput in the interim. The longer game may be less about tariffs for revenue and more about weaponizing the gold market, creating a controlled squeeze in the very bar formats that drive global futures pricing.' Game perhaps was won by China; however, the set has been won by the US but the match is still to be played out between the two competitors focused on domination of the global economy. Pakistan as a case in point has dollar reserves of around 14 billion though rollovers alone are USD 16 billion and gold reserves of 64.75 tons against India's dollar reserves of over 700 billion and gold reserves of 880 tons. There is a long way to go for Pakistan to catch up and requires more than a decade of sustained growth backed by in-house out of the box policies that will reduce the country's indebtedness in the power sector (requiring comprehensive macro-policy decisions instead of micro decisions that are continuing) and a tax structure designed to be fair, equitable and non-anomalous rather than simply focused on raising total collections. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025


Business Recorder
21 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Prices of important kitchen items show upward trend
PESHAWAR: An upward trend in prices of important kitchen items like sugar, flour, cooking oil/ghee, pulse, vegetables, live chicken/meat and others was witnessed in the retail market. A weekly-market survey carried out by Business Recorder here on Sunday revealed that a manifold increase in prices of the most of daily use items registered in the retail market. KP crop production in upper and lower districts has been adversely affected by torrential rains, flash floods and cloudbursts. Dealers and shopkeepers expressed prices would further increase in coming days due to many districts, wherein in crops are producing, affected by floods. A considerable increase in prices of vegetables recorded in the open market as none of any vegetable is available below Rs100 per kg, the survey noted. Prices of essential kitchen items show rising trend Tomato is being sold at Rs100 per kilogram in the open market whereas one kilogram of onion was being sold at Rs70-80/kg in the previous week, the survey said. Ginger and garlic remained unchanged as being available at Rs600/kg and Rs200 and Rs300/kg respectively. Green chilli was being sold at Rs120/kg, lemon is being sold at Rs400 per kilogram in the retail market, the survey said. Peas was being sold at Rs200 per kg, capsicum at Rs100-120/kilo, ladyfinger Rs100-150 and Rs200/ kilo, Arvi Rs150-200/ kilo, turnip at Rs150/kg Eggplant (bringle) Rs100/ kilo, Zucchini (tori) Rs100-120/ kilo, Tinda Rs100/kg, cabbage at Rs100/kg, red-coloured potatoes available at Rs70/ kg while white-coloured potatoes are sold at Rs50/ kg in the retail market, the survey said. The price of live chicken has increased from Rs465 per kilogram against the price Rs410 in the retail market, while the price of farm eggs also soared up, as being sold at Rs360 per dozen, the survey said. Butchers were openly defying the official price-list and imposed artificial rates and authorities concerned kept a complete mum in this regard. Cow meat without bone was available at Rs1100 and cow meat with bone is being sold at Rs1000 per kilogramme. The mutton beef was being sold from Rs2500 to Rs3000/kg in the open market. The survey noted the price of sugar remained unchanged as it was available at Rs180-200/kg in the open market. In the retail market, the survey noted the price of cooking oil/ghee of various brands and qualities remain stable. Buyers say prices of food grains, especially those which were daily use items in the kitchen, were beyond their purchasing power. Price of flour was stable in the retail market as a 20-kg fine flour sac was being sold at Rs1750-Rs1600/sac and brown-coloured flour sac at Rs1400/sac in the open market. Wheat flour and other products like maida, soji and choker flour also remained sky-high in the retail market. According to the survey, prices of all brands and qualities of beverages also remained high in the local market. Black tea was being sold at Rs1400-1500 per kg. A mixed trend was also witnessed in prices of pulses, according to the survey. Good quality rice (sela) was available at Rs360/kg, while low quality rice was available at Rs300-320/kg, while tota rice was available at Rs200-220/kg. Similarly, the survey furthermore said dal mash was available at Rs480, dal masoor at Rs320/ kilo, dal chilka (black) at Rs320/kg, dal chilka (green) at Rs260/kg, moonge at Rs400/kg, dhoti dal at Rs400/kg, dal Channa at Rs450/kg, red bean at Rs440 per kg, Gram flour (baisen) at Rs420/kg against Rs280/kg, big-size white Channa at Rs380/kg, small-size white Channa from Rs360/kg. Apple was available from Rs250-300 and Rs400-500/kg, banana at Rs150 and 200/dozen, mango at Rs200-250 and Rs300, plum at Rs150 and Rs200/kg, apricot at Rs300-350 and Rs400/ kg, leechi at Rs500/kg, black jamun at Rs500 and Rs600/ kg, melon at Rs100-150/ kg, watermelon at Rs80/per kg. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025