China keen on importing donkeys, dogs from Pakistan, says report

China has shown interest in importing donkeys and dogs from Pakistan, officials have told a parliamentary committee as the cash-strapped country is trying to overcome a major economic crisis.

During a briefing on imports and exports on Monday between the officials of the Ministry of Commerce and Senate Standing Committee, one of its members, Dinesh Kumar said that China has expressed interest in importing donkeys as well as dogs from Pakistan, Geo News reported.

Senator Abdul Qadir also informed the committee that the Chinese ambassador had also talked about exporting meat from Pakistan several times.

One of the members of the committee also suggested that since animals are comparatively cheaper in Afghanistan, Pakistan can import from there and then export the meat to China.

However, the committee was informed by the officials of the commerce ministry that animal import from Afghanistan has been temporarily banned as there have been reports of lumpy skin disease among animals in the neighbouring country.

China's keen interest in donkeys is because they use the animal's hide in manufacturing traditional Chinese medicines, "eijao" or donkey-hide gelatin that supposedly has medicinal properties, traditionally used to nourish the blood and enhance the immune system.

Pakistan, which has the world's third largest population of donkeys, currently having 5.7 million animals, has earlier also exported the animals to China.

Last year, the Punjab government set up a donkey farm over 3,000 acres in Okara district in Punjab province intending to export donkeys to help with the country's drying foreign cash reserve.

The first-of-its-kind government-owned farm is used to rear donkeys of "great breeds" including American, to increase the export to China and other countries. China earlier used to import its stock of donkeys from Niger and Burkina Faso, until the two West African countries banned their export.
 

Taliban bans Pak currency
 

The ban by Taliban Intelligence Agency against Pakistani rupee in financial transactions came into effect on October 1, Afghan news agency Khamma Press reported. 

According to the order conveyed by agency’s money laundering branch, all financial transactions exceeding Rs 500,000 are banned, including but not limited to transfers, trade, and currency exchange, are disallowed. 
 

Currency-crisis odds exceed 50 per cent
 

The odds of Pakistan facing a currency crisis in the next 12 months now exceed 50 per cent following floods that killed thousands of people and displaced millions more, a Bloomberg Economics risk model showed.

The probability of a currency-crisis episode involving a very large depreciation of the nominal exchange rate and extensive depletion of foreign-exchange reserves could climb to about 59 per cent by June 2023 from 29 per cent in August, economist Ankur Shukla wrote in a note. Shukla used a currency risk model initially applied to Pakistan but will be expanded to other emerging markets.
 

“Crop damage and a host of other problems stemming from the disaster all but erase any progress toward stability that came with the IMF’s aid,” Shukla wrote in a note on Tuesday. “Much of the progress toward stabilizing external balances has been undone by the floods.” 

-Bloomberg