FirstFT: Pakistan safety providers pressured utilities over energy deal

In right now’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 in accordance with individuals accustomed to the talks, Pakistan’s highly effective safety providers used heavy strain to coerce the unbiased producers to terminate the contracts.

The ability ministry has mentioned agreements that have been introduced on Thursday to finish the contracts will save the cash-strapped authorities Rs411bn ($1.48bn) and assist it reduce 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 power sector businesspeople mentioned the settlement with the 5 publicly listed “unbiased energy producers” adopted “coercion and threats” from safety providers.

One army officer advised an power government in a textual content message seen by the FT: “We are going to go to any measure even past our imaginations to get the difficulty settled. Time has come to provide a ultimate blow to such IPPs.” Pakistan correspondent Humza Jilani has extra particulars.

Right here’s what else I’m preserving tabs on right now:

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

• Singapore financial coverage resolution: 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 large because it tries to raise itself out of a gross sales droop.

5 extra prime tales

1. China’s deflationary pressures picked up in September with weaker than anticipated shopper and manufacturing unit costs. The softer knowledge comes as China’s risky 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 called China’s reply to Instagram, surged to $1bn within the first quarter of 2024.

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

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

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

4. Elon Musk’s SpaceX completed a momentous technical feat yesterday by catching a booster rocket with mechanical arms on its return from a check flight. Watch the unbelievable 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 powerful new EU carbon emission targets and fierce competitors from China. Learn extra in regards to the strain on the business 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 pal”. However regardless of their shared political legacy, the island’s financial collapse has harm industrial ties with China simply as Beijing’s strategic rivalry intensifies with Cuba’s arch-enemy, the US. “China is just not Cuba’s sugar daddy,” mentioned Fulton Armstrong, former US nationwide intelligence officer for Latin America. “It’s largely a relationship of solidarity statements.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

Hong Kong’s financial system continues to be struggling to regain momentum, in accordance with an FT evaluation of the most recent 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 group of pictures gives a peek into the lavish London properties of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.