Economics Notes B.com part:2

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Chapter 7: foreign ad and economic assistant

Chapter 7 - Foreign Aid and Economic Assistance

* Introduction

* Advantages of Foreign Aid

* Disadvantages of Foreign Aid

* Foreign Private Investment

Introduction

Foreign economic assistance is a provision of financial and physical forms of assistance to the developing countries for strengthening their economies.
Different terms of foreign economic assistance/loans are as unders:

1. Bilateral aid means when one country provides loan to another country.
2. Multilateral aid, when loans or Aid is provided by international agencies such as World Bank, International Finance Corporation, I.M.F., International Development Agency, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Pakistan Development Forum.
3. Tied aid is given provided machinery or raw material is purchased from loan given country.
4. United aid is given without any pre-condition, borrower can use it according its needs and requirements and from any country.
5. Food aid is provided in terms of wheat, rice etc to overcome food shortage.
6. Technical Assistance is consultancy services, technical expertise and installation of heavy projects etc.
7. Grants are given on humanitarian grounds for help in famine, floods and earthquake, which are not to be repaid to donor country.
8. Soft loan is repaid after 25 years and interest rate is from 1% to 3%.
9. Hard loan is paid with 25 years and interest rate is more than 3%.
10. Project Aid/Assistance loan is give for completion on one particular project.
11. Direct foreign investment means foreign countries companies invest in industrial and services projects in Pakistan for the sake of profit
Advantages of Foreign Aid

Foreign economic assistance is very important for economic development of Pakistan. The advantages or benefits of such assistance are as under:

1. Foreign Loan Bridges Saving Gap and Balance of Payments
In Pakistan due to low national income and poverty, per capital income is very low hence rate of savings is very low. Low savings rate cannot help in capital formation and economic development. Similarly imports are greater than exports therefore there is always deficit in balance of payments. Foreign loan, aid not only bridges domestic savings gap but also helps in overcoming balance of payments problem.

2. Development Requirements are Met
Pakistan wants to develop agriculture, industry, power and natural resources of the country but due to lack of foreign exchange, required technology could not be imported. Foreign aid and loan facilities help Govt. to import the required technology and basic raw material with which different sectors of economy can develop and due to utilization of modern machines productivity is enhanced. Thus productivity of various sectors of economy increases.

3. Establishment of Modern Economic and Social Infrastructure
Economy of a country cannot grow without the presence of economic infrastructure i.e., availability of gas, power, transport and communication. Similarly social infrastructure (i.e., education, training and health facilities), is also essential. These infrastructure facilities require local and foreign capital, which is very limited in Pakistan. Foreign aid helps government to establish these infrastructures. When construction and other development activities are started in the country, these generate employment opportunities for the people.

4. Level of Technological Increases
With the help of foreign aid which is in the way of technical collaboration or project aid, modern machines are used, which produce super quality goods in greater numbers. Hence by using goods of high quality consumers are benefited.

5. Meeting Emergencies
Foreign aid helps Pakistan in emergencies. Whenever there is an earthquake, flood or some other natural calamities, Food Aid program provides Pakistan different types of food items such as wheat, dry milk etc.

6. Defense Modernization
Pakistan wants to modernize its defense capabilities, which can only be possible provided foreign aid is available. Modern Fighter Planes, F-16 and other modern warfare technology can only be secured with the help of foreign aid and loan, as Pakistan do not have sufficient foreign exchange to finance this crucial requirement of the country.

7. Increase in Tax Revenue
When foreign loan is utilized for established of industries and social overheads then economic activities grow, goods and services are produced, foreign trade is increased, all these factors increase Govt's income through different tax sources
Disadvantages of Foreign Aid

Foreign economic assistance and Foreign Aid result in the following disadvantages.

1. Increase in Foreign Aid's Debt Servicing
Pakistan has already borrowed too much foreign loans and is still borrowing. Now in order to pay interest Pakistan is. Thus debt burden is continuously increasing.

2. Increase in Production Cost
In results in the increase in the cost of project because of interest, heavy remuneration and other fringe benefits, which are given to foreign experts.

3. Habit of Dependence on Foreign Loan and Misuse of Aid
Aid receiving countries including Pakistan do not exert and do not make policies to develop their economy with their own domestic resources. They do not pay attention for development of technology. They just become entirely dependent on others. Major portion of aid particularly commodity aid is misappropriated by the concerned Government officials.

4. Exploitation by Donor Countries
Sometimes loan giving countries interfere in the defense and foreign affairs of Pakistan. That's why it is said that there are always political strings attached to the bilateral loans.

5. Commodity Aid Discourages Domestic Agriculture Output
When aid is in terms of commodity such as wheat etc, which many times is provided at a very nominal price, discourages local production of that commodity because of higher cost of production within the country. This situation discourages local agricultural production.

6. Dependence of Imported Raw Material from Donor Country
If donor country has assisted in establishing imported substitution industry then raw material for the industry will have to be imported from loan given country otherwise industry will not continue its production because particular raw material is not available locally. This causes heavy foreign exchange burden on economy.

7. Project Tied Loans for Less Priority Projects
Sometimes a donor country may give project tied loans for those projects which for the time being may not be on the priority list of borrower and may not be very much feasible. In this way donor can burden the economy of borrower country because principal amount as well as interest has to be paid while project is not needed and is not worth while.

8. Savings Investment and Balance of Payments Gaps
Pakistan is obtaining foreign aid for bridging gap between domestic savings and investment and also to improve balance of payments position but till now it has not been able to accomplish this task, rather both gaps are continuously increasing.

9. Proportion of Tied Aid and Severity of Hard Terms Increased
As the time passes by, it is becoming difficult for Pakistan to obtain foreign aid. The donor countries have increased terms of aid by raising rate of interest and the repayment period has reduced. Too much sureties and guarantees are not demanded from Pakistan by donor countries


Foreign Private Investment

Foreign private investment or foreign direct investment is very helpful for the economic development of a host country provided they operate within certain restriction, which are given below:


Advantages of Foreign Trade Investment

1. Limits on profit repatriation should be fixed.
2. Foreign investment should have a joint venture with the local partners.
3. Foreign investors should export certain proportions of their products.
4. Monopoly control/anti-cartel laws should be enforced on foreign investors.


Disadvantages of Foreign Trade Investment

1. Profits/royalties are remitted which increases burden on balance of payment of Pakistan.
2. Foreign companies have superior products dominate local market therefore growth of local enterprises suffer a lot.
3. Foreigners establish their factories in big cities for want of protection but it creates economic disparity between rural and urban areas of the country.
4. Foreigners develop friendship with politician and bureaucrats, they provide respectable jobs to their sons and relatives and then use their economic power in influencing government polices to their advantage.
5. Foreign companies having large capital and modern technology operate on monopolistic situation thus exploit consumers by charging heavy prices.
6. Stimulate inappropriate consumption patterns through advertising, such as KFC. Pepsi Cola and Walls and Mobile phones.
7. Stimulate inappropriate consumptions patterns through advertising, such as KFC, Pepsi cola and Walls and Mobile phones.
8. Foreign private investment increases foreign exchange liability on imported raw material.
 

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Chapter 8: Banking and finance:

Chapter 9 - Banking and Finance


* Monetary Policy

* Money Market

* Capital Market

* Mutual Funds

* Types of Mutual Funds

Monetary Policy

The development of financial markets and institutions is a critical and inextricable part of the economic growth. Financial sector deepening (financial development that includes not only an expansion in the financial sector, but also an improvement in institutions so that the financial system can allocate capital to its more productive uses more efficiently) and economic growth are empirically linked. The banking sector of Pakistan was nationalized and public sector financial institutions were expanded during the early 1970s, based on the objectives of directing banking activities towards national socio-economic objectives and ensuring complete security of depositor's funds. The dominance of the public sector in banking sector and non-bank financial institutions, coupled with centralized policies marked with administered interest rates, domestic credit controls, high reserve requirements, use of captive banking system to finance large budgetary requirements of the government and controls on international capital flows were responsible for deterioration of financial institutions and their inability to play a vital role in economic growth of the country.
Monetary Policy stance of the State Bank of Pakistan has undergone considerable changes over the last several years switching from an easy to a broadly accommodative stance and then from a gradual tightening to an aggressive tightening stance till date.
Tight Monetary Policy pursued during the year slowing down the credit growth to private sector from 19.8 to 12.4 percent. The volume of credit also declined substantially in the same period clearly suggested that the policy stance has considerable success in shaving off excess demand in the economy. The impact of tight monetary was felt considerably in textiles, cement, commerce and personal loans. However, other factors also contributed to slower growth in private sector including credit from non-banking financial institutions, availability of foreign private loans and issuance of corporate bonds in international capital market by private sector companies, mergers and acquisition in the banking industry and continuous monitoring by the State Bank of Pakistan of the personal loans not being used for speculative activities.

Money Market

Money market of Pakistan is engaged in short term lending and borrowing of money. To take one example a company with surplus short-term funds might deposit these funds with its bank, which in turn uses, the money to purchase treasury bills issued by the State Bank of Pakistan. Money market links the following three institutions.
1. Banks and all other financial institutions.
2. Companies and trading firms.
3. Central Bank.
State Bank continued to exercise tight monetary policy and therefore it intervened quite frequently in the inter bank money market to achieve the desired results. Tight money market conditions were also reflected in rising interest rates in the secondary market, particularly the short-term rates as 6 month and 12 months. Tight market conditions also led the commercial banks to raise the average deposit rate thus general deposits are benefited. Strong demand for Treasury bills continued in the current fiscal year also. State Bank accepted Rs. 688.8 billion from primary market of treasury bills during the nine months of current year compared to Rs. 1052.0 billion in the last year (12 months).


Capital Market

Capital market play crucial role in investment promotion and economic development of a country. To make Pakistan's capital market an attractive window for potential investors govt. has taken a number of initiatives to streamline the taxation system especially on dividend income of foreign investors, extension of tax exemption on capital gains and permission for the private sector to launch open-end mutual funds etc. As a result of successful implementation of the successive reform measures the capital market has been growing by leaps and bounds and has emerged as one of the important pillars of the economy.

The pace of country's privatization program has gathered greater momentum as a number of public sector banks and corporations have been privatized while some other are in pipeline. Under new privatization strategy, government is selling off its shares of state controlled enterprises by listing them on the bourses as well as a view to broadening and deepening capital markets. The low interest rate environment of the last three years has been a positive development for the country's stock markets as investors seeking higher returns entered the markets with a bang; causing boom in stock exchanges.

The improved performance of stock market can mainly be attributed to consistent and transparent economic policies resulting in strong economic growth, a successful privatization processes attracting foreign investors in prestigious organization like PTCL and National Refinery, sound monetary policy of State Bank, maintenance of fiscal discipline and capital market reforms including development measures introduced by stock exchanges with full support of Securities and Exchanges omission of Pakistan. The privatization of government units through bourses helped to broad base the equity ownership to a significant level.

There are several factors that contributed to the bullish sentiment in stock markets during the last several years. These factors includes:

1. Speedy privatization process.

2. Attracting foreign investors in prestigious organizations like PTCL and National Refinery.

3. Early resolution of the IPP issue.

4. Allowing foreign investor to repatriate their funds without any restrictions.

5. Reduction in the interest rates by the banks.

6. Recovery of outstanding/over due loans.

7. Rescheduling of foreign debts and prepayment of the expensive foreign loans.

8. Continuous improvement in economic fundamentals such as economic growth, sound monetary and fiscal policies with fiscal deficit under control.

9. Higher revenue collection.

10. Lower inflation.

11. Rising export earnings and stable exchange rate.

12. Declining debt burden and higher industrial growth.

13. Efficiency in trade through automation and curbing insider trading.

14. Strengthening the structure of the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

As a result of these important development capital and stock markets in Pakistan grew by leaps and bounds during the last seven years and emerged as one of the best performing markets in emerging economies.


 

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Mutual Funds

Mutual Fund is an institution established for investing a pool of funds in various type of securities/shares for the benefit of investors. A small investors is unable to diversify his portfolio of funds simply because of high investment required for diversification. Mutual funds provide a means of diversification of investment by small investors. Initially mutual fund collects funds from small investors and when sufficient funds are gathered, and then they are invested into securities of different types, thus diversifying the portfolio. A management company manages a mutual fund. A Portfolio Manager, whose responsibility is to satisfy the desire of the investors, manages the portfolio of mutual fund. The fund manager invests money on behalf of the investors. The fund manager is paid a management fee. If there is a profit or gain on investments, it belongs to the investors. In case there is a loss, it is also borne by the investors.

Types of Mutual Funds

1. Open-End Mutual Funds
An open-end fund does not have a fixed pool of money. In it subscription and redemption of shares are allowed on a continuous basis. The price at which the shares of open-end funds offered for subscription and redemption is determined by net asset value after adjusting for any sales load or redemption fee. In Pakistan there exist 13 open-end mutual funds listed at Karachi Stock Exchange.

2. Close-End Mutual Funds
A closed-end fund has a fixed pool of money, which is collected when the fund is set up. In it shares are initially offered to public and traded in secondary market. The trading usually occurs at a slight discount to the net asset value. Now mutual fund managers have developed a variety of investment products to cater for the requirement of investors having different needs.
A mutual fund can generate profits from three different sources i.e.,

  • dividend
  • capital gains
  • appreciation of share price
Mutual fund generates income from dividends received from other joint stock companies whose shares the fund holds. A mutual fund uses this dividend income to distribute dividend to its own stockholders. The capital gain generated by mutual fund is also used to pay dividends to investors of the fund. Mutual funds also increase investment of their shareholder through appreciations of share price of mutual fund. In Pakistan there exists 23 close-end mutual funds listed at Karachi Stock Exchange. There is tremendous growth potential for mutual funds as vehicle to maximize their earnings from share-market. Commercial banks and insurance companies have also emerged as big institutional investors. Government also provides safety nets to the investors by regulating the mutual fund business.
Pakistan's Mutual Funds sector is still at the nascent stage and has yet to achieve mainstream status. The regulators along with the institutions need to promote international best practices and corporate governance, spread consumer awareness and maintain investors confidence, Pakistan's mutual fund industry is witnessing exceptional growth owing to upturn in the country's economy. Initially the market was dominated by public entities like ICP, NIT but with the emergence of private sector assets managers, the mutual fund sector is heading in the right direction. Currently mutual funds accounts for only 2.4 percent of the country's GDP compared to 6 percent for India and 69 percent for the USA. Mutual fund accounts for 16.5 percent of Pakistan's national savings.
 

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Chapter 10: Economic Planning:

Chapter 10 - Economic Planning

* Economic Planning

* Objectives of Economic Planning










Economic Planning

Economic planning is the making of major economic decisions - what and how much is to be produced and to whom it is to be allocated by the conscious decision of a determine authority on the basis of a comprehensive survey of the economic system as a whole. Planning is a technique for achieving certain self-defined and pre-determined goals laid down by a central planning authority. It is a conceiving, initiating, regulating and controlling economic activity by the State according to set priorities with a view to achieving well-defined objectives within a given time. It is planning alone which can guarantee quick economic growth in under-developed countries.

Objectives of Economic Planning

1. Increase in the Rate of Economic Development
One of the most important objectives of Economic Planning is to increase the rate of economic development. Capital formation should be carried out. Infrastructure facilities should be extended and social overhead such as education, technical training and health facilities should be increased. Planning in Pakistan should be done keeping in mind that country is populous and there are too many people looking for jobs, hence labor intensive projects should be given priority, which will absorb labor force and employment opportunities will increase. Increase in employment will increase national income and per capital income. Standard of living of people will raise and rate of domestic savings will increase.

2. Diversification of Economy
All sectors of economy should be given proper importance. No sector of economy should be neglected. Pakistan is an agrarian country, the development of industry of Pakistan depends upon agriculture, therefore more emphasis should be given to agriculture. Since population is too much and it is further increasing at a fast rate, therefore production of food grains should be increased.

3. Price Stability
Increase in price level hits the poor and fixed income people very much, whereas decrease in price reduces profit margins of the businessmen, which causes reduction in investment. One economic planning is to maintain the price stability. Through planning equal distribution of national wealth be made. The society should not be divided between "Haves and Have-nots"

4. Higher Standard of Living
Economic Planning should ensure that good education; technical training and better medical facilities are available to all the people of the country. Every one should be provided a reasonable accommodation. Thus policy should standard of living of the masses.

5. Improving Balance of Payments
All out efforts should be done under planning that balance of payments continues to improve. Export oriented and import substitutions industries should be given importance. Luxurious goods should be banned and small and agro-based industries should be given concessions and facilities. Imports should be reduced and export increased, in order to improve foreign exchange earnings. Dependence on foreign aid and grants should be curtailed.


 

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Budgeting:

Chapter 8 - Budgeting

* Fiscal Policy

* Importance of Fiscal Policy

* Taxation System of Pakistan

* Principles of Tax Policy

* Deficit Financing

* Advantages of Deficit Financing

* Disadvantages of Deficit Financing

Fiscal Policy

Fiscal policy of Govt. of Pakistan primarily deals with levels and composition of taxation, spending and borrowing by Government. Fiscal policy encompasses several fundamental policy issues, including the proper role and size of the State, role of Government in promoting growth, creating jobs, social development and redistribution of benefits of economic growth, nature and extent of public services and fairness between the present and the future generations.
Government's fiscal policy has both micro and macroeconomic objectives.


Micro Economic Objectives

It includes an improved distribution of income and wealth, equitable access to social services, meeting the basic needs of poor, promoting investment in public goods and enhancing efficiency with which public and private sectors produce goods and services and their responsiveness to the needs of consumers.


Macro Economic Objectives

It relate to evolution of economy as a whole, national income and output, inflation and balance of payments. Fiscal policy must also ensure that level and structure of taxes promote equality and redistribution and do not interfere unduly in people's investment and consumption decisions.

Central objective of govt. economic policy therefore, is to build a strong economy with a view to creating employment opportunities for all and improve the standards of living of the people of Pakistan. The policies pursued thus far have injected fiscal discipline, reduced the country's debt burden, created a stable macroeconomic environment, revived economic activity and most importantly have created a strong platform of economic stability which is vital for building prosperity and achieving social justice. Economic stability allows business, individuals and the government to plan more effectively for the long-term improvement in the quantity and quality of investment. The Government is committed to locking in stability and investing in the country's future, enabling it to meet the challenge and rise to the opportunities of the global economy.
A sound fiscal policy is essential for preventing macroeconomic imbalances and realizing the full growth potential. Pakistan has witnessed serious macroeconomic imbalances in 1990s mainly on account of its fiscal profligacy. Persistence of large fiscal deficit resulted in unsustainable levels of public debt, adversely affecting country's macroeconomic environment. Pakistan accordingly paid a heavy price for its fiscal indiscipline in terms of deceleration in economic growth and investment and the associated rise in poverty. Considerable efforts have been made to inculcate financial discipline by pursuing a sound fiscal policy. Pakistan's hard earned macro economic stability is underpinned by fiscal discipline.


Importance of Fiscal Policy

1. Attainment of maximum welfare of common man.
2. Increase in the employment opportunities.
3. Equitable distribution of national wealth.
4. Development of rural areas and reduction in disparity.
5. Control on inflation/price level.
6. Provision/development of health/education facilities.
7. Reduction in non-development expenditure.
8. Encouragement of private investment.
9. Fuller utilization of national resources.
10. Improvement in balance of payments position.

Taxation System of Pakistan

Tax policy is concerned with the design of a tax system that is capable of financing the necessary level of public spending in the most efficient in the equitable way possible. An efficient tax system should raise enough revenue to finance essential expenditures without recourse to excessive public sector borrowing and raise the revenue in ways that are equitable and that minimize its disincentive effects on economic activities. In developing countries, including, Pakistan, the establishment of effective and efficient tax system faces some formidable challenges. The first of these challenges is structure of economy that makes it difficult to impose and collect certain taxes. Economy of Pakistan is often characterized by a large share of agriculture in total output and employment, by large informal sector activities and occupations by many small establishment by a small share of wages in total national income and so on. All these characteristics reduce the possibility of relying on certain taxes such as income tax and to a much lesser extent on sales tax.
The structure of economy of Pakistan in association with low literacy and how human capital makes it difficult to develop a good tax administration. The staff of tax administration is not well educated and well trained, resources to pay good salary and to buy necessary equipment are limited, the tax payers have limited ability to keep accounts, the use of modern communication network is limited, it is difficult to create an efficient tax administration. The consequence of this situation is that Pakistan; often end up with too many small tax sources, too heavy reliance on foreign trade taxes and relatively insignificant use personnel income taxes. The non-availability of reliable statistics from the business makes it even more difficult for tax administration to assess the potential taxes that need to be collected. Uneven income distribution is also a major constraint in Pakistan's efficient tax system. To generate higher tax revenue, the top deciles are supposed to be taxed significantly more proportionality than low deciles. But economic and political powers are concentrated in the top deciles, which makes the task of tax department rather more difficult to collect taxes from top deciles/rich people. This is one major reason that the number of income tax payers in Pakistan is very low.


Principles of Tax Policy

1. Widening the tax base by reducing exemptions, incentives and concessions.
2. Reducing multiplicity of rates.
3. Lowering tax rates.
4. Shifting the incidence of tax burden from production to consumption.
5. Moving away from excessive reliance on manufacturing.
6. Taxing all value additions including services.
7. Enhancing neutrality between present and future consumption.
8. Reengineering business process of tax system to overcome the culture of tax avoidance and evasion.
9. Change in tax administration.

Deficit Financing

Deficit budget means that Govt. expenditure is more than its income from taxes and fee etc. Resources for deficit budget are met by borrowing, which is called Deficit Financing. In Pakistan deficit financing is needed because development programs require huge finance whereas domestic savings and income from taxes are not sufficient enough for this purpose. Increasing savings habits, population control, elimination of corruption, decrease in non-productive expenditure and increase in agricultural and industrial products and remove budget deficit.


Reasons for Deficit Financing in Pakistan

1. Increase in development programs.
2. Lack of saving habits.
3. Increase in population.
4. Lack of fiscal discipline.
5. Political instability.
6. Low output of agricultural sector.
7. Tax evasion and corruption.
8. Increase in non-productive expen

Advantages of Deficit Financing
 

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Govt. uses borrowed money for increase in social and economic infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, power projects, dams, canals and a host of other development programs, which helps in the improvement and productivity of various sectors of economy. This expenditure of Govt. increases money supply, which increases price level in the economy. Increases in prices, increases profit margins of industrialists, who in order to gain profit further accelerate their investment. New factories are established and capital formation increases. Govt. expenditure and private capital formation creates more jobs opportunities in the economy. Increase in employment increases demand for goods and services and on the other side it fosters saving as well, which again is utilized for further investment. Thus cycle of progress and prosperity keeps on moving ahead.
Disadvantages of Deficit Financing

There is always a time lag between Govt. investment and the output from the projects. Increase in supply of money creates inflation, by which poor people are badly affected. Their purchasing power reduces to a greater extent whereas profit margin of businessmen increases. Society is divided between haves and have-not. Increase in prices of domestic goods causes imports of cheaps goods whereas domestically produced goods high prices reduces the export earnings, which results in the adverse balance of payments position. Cost of production of industrial goods increases with the increase in prices of raw material etc., therefore foreign investment in the country becomes less attractive.
 

Hoorain

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If it seems helpful to u Fari, then lemme know,i'll provide other subjects notes!
 

Toobi

dhondo gy molko molko milnay k nae,nayab hum..
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hoor manay b 9th say b.a tak ecnomic parhe te..but sacche ab kuch b yad nae is may...:oops:
 

d33ja

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Oct 23, 2014
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asalam o alaikum kindly give me notes on folllowing questions.
why education sector is important? what can be done to improve the situation in pakistan.
what are pakistan's major improts? suggest measures to substitute the imports with local production.
 
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