Latest news with #businessmen
Arab News
2 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Nearly half of Pakistani businessmen confident in country's direction — Gallup
KARACHI: Nearly half of Pakistani businessmen believe the country is moving in the right direction, a Gallup Pakistan survey published on Monday showed, with sentiment climbing to its highest level since late 2021 amid signs of political and economic stabilization. The 'direction of country' score — the percentage of respondents who think Pakistan is on the right track minus those who think it is headed the wrong way — rose 62 points in the second quarter of 2025 to –2 percent from –64 percent a year earlier, according to the Gallup survey, whose results are based on interviews with 524 businesses in the manufacturing, services and trade sectors conducted between July 23 and 27. The improvement comes after Pakistan secured a $7 billion IMF bailout in September 2024 to avert a sovereign default and began implementing fiscal and structural reforms aimed at stabilizing its crisis-hit economy. '46 percent of businessmen rated the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government's management of the economy as better than its predecessor, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), compared to just 24 percent a year ago,' the Gallup report said. 'While the score remains marginally negative, it marks the highest level of confidence in national direction since Q4 2021,' it added. 'This uptick suggests a moderate easing of political and economic uncertainty from the perspective of the business community.' Sixty-one percent of surveyed businessmen rated their ongoing operations as 'good' or 'very good,' up six percentage points from the previous survey wave. The manufacturing sector showed slower signs of recovery than trade and services. Top concerns were rising prices, high energy costs and taxes. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said controlling inflation should be the government's highest priority. Pakistan's consumer inflation rose to 4.1 percent year-on-year in July, up from 3.2 percent in June, driven by higher food, fuel and medicine prices. High utility costs were cited by 18 percent of respondents, while 11 percent pointed to taxation. The survey also recorded a notable decline in reported bribery, with 15 percent admitting to paying a bribe in the past six months, down from 34 percent in Q4 2024. Traders reported the highest bribery rate at 20 percent, followed by 13 percent among service providers and 12 percent among manufacturers. Gallup Pakistan Executive Director Bilal Ijaz Gilani described the results as reflecting a 'cautiously improving mood' among businesses. 'While the shift is incremental, it reflects a growing sense of stabilization among economic actors,' he said. 'As always, sustained momentum will depend on continued macroeconomic reforms, policy consistency, and greater institutional responsiveness, especially toward businesses operating outside the formal sector.' Gilani said the most notable change was improved perceptions of the country's direction and growing trust in the government's economic management. While the survey points to a rebound in business confidence, analysts say Pakistan's long-term economic trajectory will depend on its ability to sustain reforms, rein in inflation, and ease the cost of doing business in the $375 billion South Asian economy.
Irish Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
There is something utterly charming about suits eating 99s in a heatwave
Nothing signals a heatwave in Dublin like suits eating 99s. In St Stephen's Green , I watch a man place his briefcase by his left leg. As he chases the dribble of a melting 99 around his right hand, I wonder if there is a more delightful scene to be found in the city. He abandons the leather holdall as if to say: now, at last, I can get down to the real work of the day. These are perhaps my favourite of Dublin's summertime characters, second only to its sandwich-eaters who willingly brave the sniper-sharp intent of its seagulls. (I recently watched a woman steal a meal deal back off a brazen bird, earning her a well-deserved round of applause and my eternal admiration.) They walk among us unnoticed in the winter months, these people with 'proper' jobs and work clothes. Swishing across town with calls to take and meetings to attend, they usually seem so important and sure of themselves. They represent a kind of adulthood that eludes me still at 26. READ MORE The kind of people who have the sort of information that seems useless until someone is asking for it – what 'the economy' is and things like that. Put a 99 in their hand, however, and it is hard to take them so seriously. Watching this man in St Stephen's Green with his tie loosened and top button opened, I am no longer intimidated by the fact that he could probably explain to me how and why exchange rates work. Right now I can see that he is struggling to avoid being poked in the eye by his chocolate flake ('either chew as you go or shove it down', I want to scream). I wonder how often it is that these suits get a moment's peace like this. When else can they take a step off of the treadmill and trust that no one will pull them back on to it until they have ingested the pointed end of this wafer cone? No one could dare interrupt such an indulgence. Who could be so cruel? There is something truly cynical about interrupting a 99 with anything other than a nod of approval. On Baggot Street, I notice a group of workers briskly walking back to the office, cones in hand. They have a look on their faces thatsuggests they have already got away with something. I can tell whose idea it was by the rosy-cheeked giddiness of the lad biting into the arched top of the freshly swirled 99. Beside him, a woman takes a double lap around her cone, struggling to keep up as it melts. I feel happy for her that this high-speed chase is the most urgent problem she faces for the moment – and not the presentation she is due to give in T-minus seven minutes. Right now, she has only sticky fingers to worry about and the dribble making a beeline across her wrist for the cuff of her blouse. Some are better than others, but there is no such thing as a bad 99. Photograph: Kinga Krzeminska/ Getty Images Few other treats give you such total freedom from the machinations of daily life. Coffees, cigarettes, snacks – these are all just functional ways of breaking up the day and, let's face it, you can always answer an email at the same time. There is a precarity to the 99 that commands your attention and puts the relentlessness of routine on hold. Try to do anything productive with a 99 in hand. I dare you. Write a to-do list. Fill out that survey. Give someone directions. You will quickly realise that no suit is sharp enough to reassert the authority undermined by some ice-cream under your nose. So long as that cone is in your hand, you are its hostage. You might have an actual meeting to attend or a real spreadsheet to fill but right now and until you are finished, this ice-cream is your boss – and you are clocked in and required to stay on message. Perhaps this is what I find so charming about suits eating 99s. For once, I actually understand their struggle. There is a shared humanity in that. More often than not, I wonder who told them about five-year-plans and pensions and forgot to keep me in the loop. I often question whether there is a watershed moment at which we all 'grow up'. [ I'm not sure who won the battle of the compliments Opens in new window ] Is there a point at which you irrevocably achieve full adult status beyond simply existing for 18 years? Some certificate in life experience? A diploma for remembering to get rinse aid for the dishwasher and a set of thank you cards for when you next need them? Or is the notion of a before and after being younger and older just a nice story we tell ourselves to make us think that we will, at some point, have it all figured out? The kick my friend (and neighbour) and I got from the walkie-talkies we recently acquired makes me think so. We can tell ourselves all we want that there is some kind of a separation between young or old. But ultimately there is nothing discreet about eating a 99. Those suits on their lunch break are sure proof of that. [ I went to visit my old school. Big mistake. At 25 I now feel ancient Opens in new window ] During these summertime heatwaves, they are a welcome reminder that what we knew as children is as useful to us as adults (and probably more helpful than any factoid about the economy): some are better than others, but there is no such thing as a bad 99.
Bloomberg
24-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Saudi-Syrian Pacts Will Amount to $6 Billion, Minister Says
A Saudi-Syrian investment forum in Damascus will include the signing of 44 pacts worth about $6 billion, said Syria's Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa, as the war-ravaged country tries to revitalize its devastated economy through cooperation with the Gulf kingdom. A 150-person Saudi delegation consisting of businessmen and government officials arrived in Syria on Wednesday to complete the agreements, most of which are expected to be memorandums of understanding and joint projects, according to Saudi media.
Bloomberg
23-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Saudi-Syrian Agreements Will Amount to $6 Billion, Minister Says
A Saudi-Syrian investment forum in Damascus will include the signing of 44 pacts worth about $6 billion, said Syria's Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa, as the war-ravaged country tries to revitalize its devastated economy through cooperation with the Gulf kingdom. A 150-person Saudi delegation consisting of businessmen and government officials arrived in Syria on Wednesday to complete the agreements, most of which are expected to be memorandums of understanding and joint projects, according to Saudi media.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Yahoo
I moved to Mexico for my maternity leave. It was the best decision I've made.
My train broke down returning home, and I started a conversation with another passenger. I told him my husband was Mexican and that I was due in September. He suggested we move to Mexico for my maternity leave and skip the London winter. In February 2009, I was on the Eurostar returning to London from a day of meetings in Paris. Somewhere in rural northern France, the train broke down. We were asked to disembark and wait on the platform indefinitely for a replacement. A stranger asked me a question that changed my life. I had been sitting at one of those four-seat tables where you face strangers across a shared surface. We hadn't spoken until that point, but as we stood on a freezing platform together, we each began to tell our story. One woman in our group had been to Paris to deliver an engagement ring to a hotel for her son, who was flying in later that day and planned to propose to his girlfriend. The other two were businessmen also heading home. I mentioned I was pregnant with my second child and had just finished a long day of meetings with advertising clients. Eventually, I shared that my husband was Mexican and working on a bar opening in London that would wrap in September, right around my due date. One of the men looked at me and said something that changed everything: "I guess you will be spending your maternity leave in Mexico then?" I didn't understand his comment, so I asked him to expand. He said that if I was going to be off for a year, why weren't we going somewhere warm for the winter? It stopped me in my tracks. I hadn't even considered that option. But he was right. Why should we stay in cold, gray London when we could be bonding with our newborn in the Caribbean sunshine? By the time I got back to London — many hours later — I called my husband from the taxi and asked, "Is there any reason we shouldn't spend six months in Mexico after the baby's born?" He paused, thought about it, and said, "No. Let's do it." And so we did. We rented out our London house to friends of friends. On December 6, 2009, with a 2.5-month-old baby and our 3-year-old in tow, we flew to Mexico. After a stop in Mexico City to spend Christmas with family, we settled in Playa del Carmen, a beach town on the Yucatán Peninsula, for four months. The house we stayed in was very basic — plastic garden furniture, mismatched dishes, and borrowed essentials from generous relatives. No washing machine, no microwave — which, with a newborn, felt pretty daunting. But we were in heaven. We swam every day, ate fresh fish, took turns to go to the gym, and spent true quality time as a family. Our toddler became fluent in Spanish. My husband and I got fit, tanned, and rested — something I never expected to feel just a few months after giving birth. We actually made money while we were away. The rent we earned on our London home covered all of our expenses in Mexico. Our cost of living there was dramatically lower — no tube passes, no childcare, no expensive dinners or work wardrobes. We came back refreshed and financially ahead. The basic but very happy life we lead completely reset my understanding of what I need versus what I want in life, a benefit that lasted for many years after our trip. When I returned, a friend's husband swore I'd had "work done" because I looked so rejuvenated. I hadn't. It was just sunshine, sleep, and a simple life. That spontaneous decision, sparked by a stranger's comment, became one of the best of my life. It taught me that the obvious path isn't always the smartest one. Sometimes, the most logical next step is the one you hadn't even imagined. Read the original article on Business Insider
