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Despite the fact that less than 200,000 bales (155 kgs) of cotton from the current cotton crop (August 2016/July 2017) remain unsold with the ginners and the new cotton crop is delayed by a couple of weeks due to late sowing, lint prices are not picking up. However, the ginners are not holding the sale of cotton and are selling it as and how they receive offers from the mills.

On their part, there are reports that more mills are closing down in Pakistan giving rise to increasing unemployment in the country. There are reports in the market that several mills owe loans to the ginners and are finding it difficult to pay back.

There are also conjectures that several units of the domestic textile industry owe sizeable amounts of money to the banks and sundry suppliers but are finding it difficult to pay back. Some textile millers say that the textile industry, including some value-added units, are finding it difficult to make ends meet and are diverting to other business and vocations such as real estate. It has also been reported that some open-end mills are also closing down and are finding it difficult to pay back their creditors, including the ginners.

The lint prices on the ready market in both Sindh and Punjab provinces are said to be obtaining within the broad range of Rs 6,500 to Rs 7,000 per maund (37.32 kgs), according to the quality. Due to the arrivals at the end of the current season (2016/2017), much of the remaining cotton stock in the market is said to be lower in quality.

New cotton crop sowing is said to have picked up notably, and it is initially estimated that during the forthcoming cotton season (August 2017/July 2018), Pakistan could harvest anywhere from 11.5 to 12.5 million bales of cotton (155 kgs) subject to conducive weather. According to one assessment, new crop cotton in Pakistan could start arriving by the end of June 2017 or in early July 2017 in modest quantities.

According to one report, the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) has approached the Lahore High Court against the establishment of sugar mills in southern Punjab. The ginners have pleaded with the High Court and alleged that sugar mills have damaged the cotton belt badly. It has been reported that Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah is hearing the case. Official data is said to have been presented to the Honourable Lahore High Court showing that establishment of sugar mills in southern Punjab damaged the land and water level which has been responsible for causing financial loss to the farmers.

On the global economic and financial front, not withstanding the significant increases on the leading equity and commodity prices around the world, the growth rate in the United States during the first quarter of this year has nosedived significantly as per the official data. The U.S. economic growth rate hit a three-year low level. Reports indicate that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the U.S. expanded only by 0.7 percent during the first three months of the current year (2017) which is the slowest rate since the first quarter of 2014.

In this connection, analysts have recalled the pledge of Donald Trump who had promised a growth rate of four percent in his campaign speeches. Actually, this drop in the American GDP during the first quarter of the current year has not only surprised the American populace, but has also disheartened economic observers around the globe.

To counter this discouraging news, the Treasury Secretary Steven Munchin is reported by the BBC to have presented a tax blue print which proposes to cut the business tax rate from 35 to 15 percent. Furthermore, the report added that the plan also envisages an incentive to be given to those companies who bring back their money holdings from abroad, besides a cut in tax rate for individuals. The slowdown of the U.S. economy during the first quarter of this year (2017) is being ascribed to stagnant consumer spending.

In this regard, the Federal Reserve Bank of America has commented that the recent slowdown in the American economy will be temporary. However, the Federal Reserve has decided to keep the interest rate in the range of 0.75 percent. Thus the Federal Reserve appears to be in no hurry to increase the interest rates any time soon and believes that any economic growth in America will be gradual.

Similarly, it was reported that factory output in China continued to expand last month but at a slower pace, as also evidenced by a lowering of the purchasing manager's index (PMI) which fell to 50.3 in April, 2017. Some analysts, however, believe that growth in China may slow down in the second quarter. The analysts foresee continuing downside pressures which could bring a further slowdown, however modest, in China later in the year.

Elsewhere, France is still undergoing a lacklustre economic growth, besides a high unemployment rate of 10.1 percent. In the United Kingdom, sales of new cars are said to have plunged in April 2017 by about twenty percent. In Italy, recent reports informed that Alitalia Airlines is facing bankruptcy. In South Africa, a political turmoil is raging as political chaos is engulfing the entire polity there. The African National Congress, the ruling party, is in the heart of a political crisis as it has been charged with allegations of high corruption and cronyism. Under the existing political chaos, the economy of South Africa is facing a disaster.

The fate of several other countries like Brazil, Venezuela and Turkey is also in the grip of large political infighting and also external pressures which are hurting the economies of those countries. These few examples should suffice to show that the global trade and economy cannot improve in the foreseeable future. North Africa and the Middle East remain in the grip of genocide of historical proportions. In fact, with different ideologies and beliefs such as the proponents of continuing globalization on the one hand and the newly emergent populists and rightists on the other, not only the existing economic frame work is under threat, but no alternative system is forthcoming besides cries for isolationism.



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