分类： bharat

Spectre of stagflation looms over India and China

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has agreed to import 130,000 tons of raw sugar from India for $49 million, despite an ongoing row over palm oil trade between the two countries.

The amount is a leap from last year’s raw sugar imports from India of 88,000 tons. Malaysia’s sugar producer MSM Malaysia Holdings Berhad (MSM) said it has procured the first quarter of its raw sugar requirement from India for 2020, and is expecting the arrival of three more shipments between January and February.

MSM is the leading sugar refiner in Asia, with annual production capacity of up to 2.25 million tons of refined sugar.

The company operates under the world’s largest palm oil producer FGV Holdings, which is a unit of the Malaysian state-owned Federal Land Development Authority.

MSM Group CEO Khairil Anuar Aziz said in a statement released on Thursday that the company decided to import Indian sugar due to “the acceptable quality and competitive freight cost of raw sugar produced from India.”

India is among the world’s largest sugar producers alongside Brazil and Thailand. “Over 900,000 metric tons of raw sugar were imported in 2019 from various top producing countries, which include India,” said Anuar Aziz.

MSM did not cite the palm oil dispute as a cause for the increase in sugar imports, but sources from Reuters reported that the move was a bid to appease India, which has been urging Malaysia to reduce the trade deficit between the countries.

“These are two large Asian economies that are no strangers to international trade,” said Dr. Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

Indian authorities averted a major attack on Republic Day when they killed three jihadist militants during a raid in Kashmir, including a mastermind behind the 2019 Pulwama blast, the country’s army and police chiefs said.
The militants, belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) jihadist group, were killed in a clash with security forces in the Pulwama District of the Indian-controlled part of disputed Kashmir on Saturday, ahead of the nationwide celebrations, police and army officials revealed.

Kashmir’s Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar told reporters that one of the killed terrorists was Qari Yasir, the group’s chief in the region. “He was an IED expert and was involved in recruitment as well as relocation of militants coming in from Pakistan,” Kumar said, adding that Yasir was also “involved” in the February 2019 suicide bombing that killed 40 military policemen in Pulwama District.