2025-07-09 11:41

KARACHI/SINGAPORE, July 9 (Reuters) - Pakistan’s central bank is preparing to launch a pilot for a digital currency and is finalising legislation to regulate virtual assets, Governor Jameel Ahmad said on Wednesday, as the country ramped up efforts to modernise its financial system. Central banks globally are exploring the use of digital currencies as interest in blockchain-based payments grows. Pakistan’s move follows similar steps by regulators in China, India, Nigeria and several Gulf states to test or issue digital currencies through controlled pilot programmes. Sign up here. At the Reuters NEXT Asia summit in Singapore, Ahmad said Pakistan was “building up our capacity on the central bank digital currency” and hoped to roll out a pilot soon. He was speaking on a panel alongside Sri Lanka’s central bank governor, P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, with both discussing monetary policy challenges in South Asia. Ahmad said a new law would “lay down the foundations for the licensing and regulation” of the virtual assets sector and that the central bank was in touch with some tech partners. The move builds on efforts by the government-backed Pakistan Crypto Council, set up in March to drive virtual asset adoption. The PCC is exploring bitcoin mining using surplus energy, has appointed Binance founder Changpeng Zhao as a strategic adviser and plans to establish a state-run bitcoin reserve. It has also held talks with U.S.-based crypto firms, including the Trump-linked World Liberty Financial. In May, the State Bank of Pakistan clarified that virtual assets were not illegal. However, it advised financial institutions not to engage with them until a formal licensing framework was in place. "There are risks associated, and at the same time, there are opportunities in this new emerging field. So we have to evaluate and manage the risk very carefully, and at the same time not allow to let go the opportunity," he said on the panel. On Wednesday, Pakistan's state minister on blockchain and crypto, Bilal bin Saqib, said in a statement that Pakistan's government had approved the "Virtual Assets Act, 2025" creating an independent regulator to license and oversee the crypto sector. TIGHT GRIP, FALLING RATES Ahmad said the central bank would continue to maintain a tight policy stance to stabilise inflation within its 5–7% medium-term target. Pakistan has cut its benchmark rate from a peak of 22% to 11% over the past year, as inflation slumped from 38% in May 2023 to 3.2% in June, averaging 4.5% in the 2025 fiscal year just ended, a nine-year low. “We are now seeing the results of this tight monetary policy transfer, both on our inflation as well as on the external account,” he said. Ahmad said Pakistan was not overly exposed to dollar weakness, noting its foreign debt was mostly dollar-denominated and only 13% comprised Eurobonds or commercial loans. “We don’t see any major impact,” he said, adding that reserves had risen to $14.5 billion from under $3 billion two years ago. Ahmad said Pakistan’s three-year $7 billion IMF programme, which runs through September 2027, was on track and had resulted in reforms in fiscal policy, energy pricing and the foreign exchange market. “We are confident that after that (IMF programme), maybe we will not require an immediate (follow-up).” Asked whether Pakistan had financing plans lined up for upcoming military equipment purchases, particularly imports from China, Pakistan’s central bank governor said he was not aware of such plans. To view the live broadcast of the World Stage go to the Reuters LIVE page: https://www.reuters.com/world/reuters-next-asia-live-global-leaders-address-challenges-opportunities-2025-07-07/ https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pakistan-central-bank-launch-pilot-digital-currency-says-governor-2025-07-09/

2025-07-09 11:27

Torrential rains drench large swathes of China Displacing thousands and exposing China's ageing flood defences A high-pressure system is also baking other parts of the country Extreme weather is increasingly challenging Chinese officials BEIJING, July 9 (Reuters) - Torrential rains swept across swathes of China on Wednesday as Tropical Storm Danas drenched coastal tech hubs while monsoonal rains further inland unleashed deadly landslides and flash floods over a 1,400-km (870-mile) arc. Compounding the challenge for authorities, a subtropical high-pressure system has been baking the $19 trillion economy's more north-easterly seaboard and central provinces since last week, straining power grids and parching croplands. Sign up here. The world's No.2 economy faces growing threats from extreme weather, which meteorologists link to climate change. Each year, the impact threatens to wipe out tens of billions of dollars worth of commercial activity, alongside loss of life, as ageing flood defences are overwhelmed and infrastructure gaps - such as limited access to air conditioning - are exposed. Chinese weather authorities urged residents to stay indoors as Storm Danas - which has weakened from a typhoon after claiming two lives in Taiwan - began dumping the water it had sucked up over the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait on the coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian. Danas is forecast to deposit up to 300 millimetres (30 centimetres) of rain in some parts, shutting schools and putting officials along rivers feeding key ports in the cities of Fuzhou and Xiamen on alert for flash floods, according to China's state broadcaster. ON FLOOD ALERT Although no longer a typhoon, Danas' residual vortex and the substantial amount of water it carries could still wreak havoc in southern China, where rapid urbanisation has sealed vast stretches of land beneath impermeable concrete. That risk materialised some 1,500 km (932 miles) away in Yibin, a city in southwestern Sichuan province, where over 6,000 people were evacuated on Wednesday after 14 hours of rain. State broadcaster CCTV showed firefighters carrying residents out of rising waters in the lower floors of apartment buildings. In Zhaotong, a city about a three-hour drive from Yibin, more than 7,000 people were evacuated and five were reported missing amid heavy rains, CCTV reported on Wednesday. One county recorded 227.8 mm of rainfall within 24 hours, the highest local single-day total since records began in 1958. Meanwhile, over 300 people had to be relocated following a flash flood near the foothills of the Himalayas in China's Tibet, caused by a river in Gyirong bursting its banks. Conditions in northern China were not much better, as authorities in the city of Shijiazhuang in Hebei province activated emergency flood protocols after some districts received more than 100 millimetres of overnight rain. HEATWAVES The subtropical high-pressure system, straddling the monsoonal clouds in China's interior and the rain bands of Danas, continued to hang over central China and the eastern seaboard running from Shanghai towards Beijing on Wednesday, bringing near-record heat to the mega-cities of Shanghai, Wuhan and Changsha. People in China's northeast were encouraged to avoid going outside during the hottest hours of the day and to keep hydrated, following reports of heatstroke-related fatalities over the past week. China does not provide an official count of heat-related deaths, although domestic media occasionally report fatalities citing local authorities. In 2022, the country endured a 79-day heatwave from mid-June to late August — its worst since 1961. A 2023 study published in the medical journal The Lancet estimated that more than 50,000 heat-related deaths occurred that year. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/flash-flood-warnings-eastern-china-storm-danas-moves-inland-2025-07-09/

2025-07-09 11:22

July 9 (Reuters) - Venture Global (VG.N) , opens new tab will supply an additional 0.75 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas to Germany-based distributor SEFE Energy GmbH, the two companies said on Wednesday. Venture Global said the LNG would be supplied from Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) LNG project for 20 years, bringing the total volume of LNG purchase by SEFE - short for Securing Energy for Europe - to 3 mtpa from the project. Sign up here. Commercial activity in the sector has gained momentum in the United States, the world's largest LNG exporter, after President Donald Trump lifted a moratorium on new export permits for it after he took office in January. Venture Global's CP2 project - which has a capacity of 20 mtpa and set to deliver its first LNG in 2027 - will be the single-largest export facility of the superchilled gas in the U.S. The company is expected to become Germany's largest LNG supplier, with a combined 5 mtpa offtake 20-year agreements with German companies SEFE and Energie Baden Wuerttemberg AG (EBKG.DE) , opens new tab. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/venture-global-supply-additional-lng-german-firm-cp2-project-2025-07-09/

2025-07-09 11:20

Indexes up: Dow 0.49%, S&P 500 0.61%, Nasdaq 0.95% Nvidia first company to hit $4 trillion market value AES jumps on report of sale efforts UnitedHealth down on report of DOJ's Medicare billing probe July 9 (Reuters) - Wall Street indexes closed higher on Wednesday, led by the tech-heavy Nasdaq as Nvidia briefly reached a $4 trillion valuation, and Federal Reserve meeting minutes fueled hopes that inflation pressures from President Donald Trump's tariffs would not derail interest rate cuts this year. The minutes for the mid-June meeting showed that most Fed officials said they expect rate cuts will be appropriate later this year, with price shocks from Trump's import taxes expected to be "temporary or modest." However, there was little support for a rate cut at the end of July meeting. Sign up here. Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab became the world's first company to hit a $4 trillion market value on Wednesday morning, solidifying its position as one of Wall Street's most favored stocks to tap in the ongoing surge in demand for artificial intelligence technologies. Shares in the chip company ended Wednesday up 1.8% with a market capitalization of around $3.97 trillion. It helped lift the Nasdaq, which closed at an all-time high. While concerns about tariff-induced inflation pressure did not stop Wall Street from hitting fresh record highs last week, Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, noted that they have caused the Fed to pause interest rate hikes. "Fed officials suggested that they believe inflation will be higher down the road. At the same time, many or most officials suggested that they expect lower interest rates at some point this year. Those two things don't match," said Chris Brigati, chief investment officer at SWBC, an investment company in San Antonio, Texas. "Perhaps they're starting to put a little bit more weight into what's going on with the labor market." Besides Nvidia, other market boosts came from megacap companies including Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) , opens new tab, which rose 1.4% and Amazon.com (AMZN.O) , opens new tab, which added 1.5%. "There's definitely a megacaps bias. ... To some extent it's a flight to safety but not what you would traditionally think of as a safety trade," said Kevin Gordon, senior investment strategist at Charles Schwab. "From a trade standpoint it's not like you're getting much clarity." While Wall Street indexes had fallen on trade jitters on Monday, they have steadied since then, with analysts noting that investors have become used to Trump's pattern of saber-rattling on tariffs. And with the deadline for the latest tariffs pushed to August 1, many are betting that negotiations will defuse the trade war. Trump issued letters to seven countries on Wednesday, calling for tariffs of 30% on Algeria, Iraq, Libya and Sri Lanka, 25% on Brunei and Moldova, and 20% on the Philippines. The European Union has said it could reach an outline trade agreement with the U.S. in the coming days. On Tuesday, Trump had ramped up his trade offensive with the announcement of a 50% tariff on copper and a vow to slap long-threatened levies on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. On Monday, Trump hit 14 trading partners with a fresh wave of tariff warnings, including Japan and South Korea. "The market is becoming a little desensitized to the bad news of tariffs. ... You had three months of still constructive growth and things have not been that bad so the market's saying maybe we can get through these tariffs," said SWBC's Brigati. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab rose 217.54 points, or 0.49%, to 44,458.30, the S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab gained 37.74 points, or 0.61%, to 6,263.26 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab gained 192.87 points, or 0.95%, to 20,611.34. Eight of the 11 S&P 500's major industry sectors advanced, led by utilities (.SPLRCU) , opens new tab, up 1%, and technology (.SPLRCT) , opens new tab, up 0.9%. Consumer staples (.SPLRCS) , opens new tab, often seen as a more defensive sector, was the biggest loser, ending down 0.6%. After last week's record closes for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq - buoyed by a surprisingly robust jobs report - investors are turning their attention to Thursday's initial jobless claims for the next pulse check on the labor market. Among individual stocks, AES Corp (AES.N) , opens new tab rallied 19.8% after Bloomberg reported that the power provider was exploring options, including a sale. Boeing (BA.N) , opens new tab shares advanced 3.7% as Susquehanna raised its price target after the planemaker reported on Tuesday that its airplane deliveries in June increased 27% on a yearly basis. UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N) , opens new tab shares slipped 1.6% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating how the health insurer deployed doctors and nurses to gather diagnoses that increased its Medicare payments. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.17-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 280 new highs and 39 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 2,988 stocks rose and 1,551 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.93-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and six new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 72 new highs and 44 new lows. On U.S. exchanges, 18.10 billion shares changed hands compared with the 18.35 billion average for the last 20 sessions. https://www.reuters.com/business/wall-street-futures-edge-up-amid-tariff-talks-trade-turbulence-2025-07-09/

2025-07-09 11:16

July 8 (Reuters) - Torrential rains triggered flash floods in New Mexico that killed at least three people on Tuesday, including two young children, and trapped dozens in homes and vehicles in the resort village of Ruidoso, a state emergency official and a village statement said. The children, aged four and seven years old, and a man were swept downstream and later found dead, the mountain resort village said late Tuesday on its website, adding that rescue operations were underway. Sign up here. Dramatic video footage on social media and various news outlets showed an entire house, ripped from its foundations, careening downstream through the brown, muddy waters of the flood-engorged Rio Ruidoso, side-swiping trees as it went. "I've seen the video. We don't know if anyone was in the house," said Danielle Silva, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Emergency teams organised by local law enforcement and the National Guard conducted at least 85 swift-water rescues in and around Ruidoso, many of them people stranded in cars and homes by elevated flood waters, Silva said. Silva said the river had quickly risen by a provisional record of 20.24 feet (6.2 metres) at the peak of the flood, and as waters began to recede in the evening, authorities began searching for survivors in the debris. The latest floods come just four days after a deadly flash flood triggered by heavy rains along the Guadalupe River killed at least 109 people and left scores missing after ravaging a swath of Texas Hill Country. In New Mexico, Silva said the severity of the debris flow was heightened by a flame-scarred landscape stripped of vegetation in a wildfire which was then followed by flooding that eroded the soil. Ruidoso, a popular summer retreat as well as ski resort nestled in the Sierra Blanca mountain range of south-central New Mexico, is located about 115 miles (185 km) south of Albuquerque, the state's largest city. (This story has been refiled to remove extraneous letters in the headline) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/flash-flooding-new-mexico-resort-town-traps-dozens-homes-vehicles-2025-07-09/

2025-07-09 11:15

July 9 (Reuters) - India's markets regulator on Wednesday proposed allowing credit ratings agencies to rate financial instruments regulated by other financial sector regulators. Any agency that expands ratings to such instruments will need to set up a new unit within six months, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said in a consultation paper. Sign up here. SEBI, under new chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, has signalled a more pragmatic approach to oversight and also relaxed certain regulations. Agencies that rate non-SEBI-regulated instruments must charge a fee for the same and maintain arm's length from the business that rates SEBI-regulated entities, the regulator said. "SEBI has been receiving feedback from the industry towards permitting credit ratings agencies to undertake rating of financial instruments under the purview of other regulators," it said, including instruments such as unlisted securities. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/india-markets-regulator-mulls-allowing-ratings-agencies-rate-instruments-not-2025-07-09/