FirstFT: Pakistan safety providers pressured utilities over energy deal

In at this time’s publication:

• How Pakistan’s safety providers pressured utilities over an influence deal

• China and Cuba’s weakening ties

• Hong Kong’s struggling financial system — in charts

Good morning. Final week, Pakistan’s energy ministry introduced that 5 native utility firms had agreed to finish costly electrical energy provide contracts with the federal government early.

However based on individuals conversant in the talks, Pakistan’s highly effective safety providers used heavy stress to coerce the unbiased producers to terminate the contracts.

The ability ministry has mentioned agreements that had been introduced on Thursday to finish the contracts will save the cash-strapped authorities Rs411bn ($1.48bn) and assist it minimize electrical energy costs for households and companies.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s workplace mentioned the ability firms had “voluntarily agreed” to terminate their contracts. However vitality sector businesspeople mentioned the settlement with the 5 publicly listed “independent power producers” adopted “coercion and threats” from safety providers.

One navy officer instructed an vitality government in a textual content message seen by the FT: “We will go to any measure even beyond our imaginations to get the issue settled. Time has come to give a final blow to such IPPs.” Pakistan correspondent Humza Jilani has extra particulars.

Right here’s what else I’m preserving tabs on at this time:

• Financial knowledge: India experiences September inflation knowledge, China publishes commerce stability figures for the month and Singapore experiences advance third-quarter GDP estimates.

• Singapore financial coverage determination: The Asian monetary hub is broadly anticipated to maintain coverage unchanged amid lingering inflation dangers. (Reuters)

• Japan: Monetary markets are closed for Sports activities Day.

• New Nike CEO: Elliott Hill turns into the brand new boss of the sneaker big because it tries to raise itself out of a gross sales stoop.

5 extra prime tales

1. China’s deflationary pressures picked up in September with weaker than anticipated shopper and manufacturing facility costs. The softer knowledge comes as China’s unstable markets await extra detailed data on Beijing’s stimulus plans, after a Ministry of Finance press convention on Saturday that pledged extra spending however gave few new figures.

• China’s fastest-growing social media app: Revenues at Xiaohongshu, also referred to as China’s reply to Instagram, surged to $1bn within the first quarter of 2024.

2. The US is sending a complicated anti-missile system to Israel and 100 troops to function it in a uncommon transfer that may enhance its ally’s defences as Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities plans retaliatory strikes towards Iran. Right here’s what to know concerning the THAAD anti-missile system that Washington is sending to Israel.

• Center East information: The UN accused Israel of a “flagrant violation” of worldwide legislation yesterday after Israeli tanks broke right into a place stationed by peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, hours earlier than Benjamin Netanyahu instructed worldwide forces to withdraw from fight areas.

3. India’s highly effective copycat pharmaceutical trade is about to roll out generic weight-loss medication within the UK inside weeks, with one main producer forecasting a “huge price war”. Bengaluru-based Biocon is the primary firm to win UK authorisation to supply a generic model of Novo Nordisk’s Saxenda weight remedy and is able to launch gross sales by November.

4. Elon Musk’s SpaceX achieved a momentous technical feat yesterday by catching a booster rocket with mechanical arms on its return from a take a look at flight. Watch the unimaginable footage of launch pad’s “chopsticks” catching the booster.

5. European carmakers are planning dozens of inexpensive electrical fashions subsequent 12 months as they brace for an “EV winter” pushed by robust new EU carbon emission targets and fierce competitors from China. Learn extra concerning the stress on the trade forward of this week’s Paris Motor Present.

Information in-depth

Beijing describes Cuba, the one communist nation within the Americas, as a “good brother, good comrade, good friend”. However regardless of their shared political legacy, the island’s financial collapse has damage business ties with China simply as Beijing’s strategic rivalry intensifies with Cuba’s arch-enemy, the US. “China is not Cuba’s sugar daddy,” mentioned Fulton Armstrong, former US nationwide intelligence officer for Latin America. “It’s principally a relationship of solidarity statements.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

Hong Kong’s financial system remains to be struggling to regain momentum, based on an FT evaluation of the newest knowledge. The Asian monetary hub has been hampered by slowing development in China, larger US rates of interest and a fall in vacationer numbers.

Take a break from the information

A set of pictures provides a peek into the lavish London houses of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.