London  - Britain's Barclays Bank Monday reported pre- tax profits of
6.08 billion pounds (8.9 billion dollars) for 2008, a drop of 14 per
cent compared with the previous year.

The figure exceeds expectations in the City of London, and include an
"accounting profit" of Barclays' acqisition of assets of collapsed US
investment bank Lehman Brothers of 2.4 billion pounds.

Barclays, which has declined to take up the British government offer to
recapitalize the banking system, has insisted that its finances are
sound.

Leading public sector bank, Punjab National Bank, formally launched the Global Credit Card, acceptable in over 29 million merchant establishments and one million ATMs in the world.

The gold credit card, launched by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Friday, will also have access to e-commerce sites besides hosting features such as photo card and SMS alerts.

Islamabad - The World Bank (WB) is to provide a loan of two billion dollars to cash-strapped Pakistan, a senior official of the bank said on Saturday.

"The Bank Group plans to provide up to two billion dollars in credits during this fiscal year to support economic growth and the government's poverty-focused programs," said WB's country director for Pakistan Yusupha Crookes.

"These projects will support the immediate challenges in education, health, safety nets and community-led development, while laying the foundation for investment in infrastructure to foster long term growth and job creation," he added.

Country’s second largest public sector lender, Punjab National Bank, has launched a global credit card.

While speaking during the commercial launch of the cards, PNB Chairman K C Chakrabarty said, “To start with we are launching two varieties of credit cards Global Gold and Global Classic, which will meet the needs of its customers and will cater to the requirement of different income groups.”

Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission was also present at the occasion.

Kathmandu - Nepalese consumers have been hard hit by the high inflation rate which rose above 14 per cent, Nepal's central bank said Saturday.

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) said the year-on-year consumer inflation rose to 14.4 per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal year which began in mid-July.

The current inflation rate is nearly three times higher than during the corresponding period last year, the bank said.

"The rise in the inflation had been attributed to soaring price indices of foods and beverages, non-food items and service groups in the review period," NRB said.

Exporters facing tough situation due to slump in overseas demand have a reason to cheer. The Reserve Bank of India has relaxed norms pertaining to export credit in the global market, enabling exporters to avail funds from overseas market.