Budget deficit still not being dealt with!
The Khan administration inherited two unsustainable deficits that continue to plague its seven and a half months long tenure: current account and budget deficit. The current account deficit by end…
Pakistan’s intractable budget deficit?
Pakistan’s unsustainable budget deficits can be sourced to the never to be satisfied thirst of all administrations, past and present - civilian, military, hybrid, caretaker - to borrow to fund…
Burgeoning budget deficit
The information on fiscal operations in 2021-22 has just been released by the Ministry of Finance. These figures are based on information from the AGPR (Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue),…
Primary versus budget deficit
Setting time bound quantitative targets for primary deficit, defined as minus interest and repayment of principal as and when due, is a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) condition for Pakistan…
Whither the budget deficit
There was intense speculation on the government’s ability to meet the budget deficit target of 7.2 percent for the current fiscal year, the same as projected for 2018-19, agreed with…
Lower budget deficit in 2019-20
The information on fiscal operations in 2019-20 by the federal and provincial governments was released a few days ago. The very pleasant surprise is that the consolidated fiscal deficit has…
Runaway budget deficits
The last three years witnessed a steady decline in the consolidated budget deficit during the tenure of the IMF program. The deficit was 6.4% of the GDP in 2012-13, excluding…
Understating the budget deficit
The process of fiscal stabilization requires a big downward adjustment in the size of the consolidated budget deficit of the Federal and Provincial Governments. Therefore, it is of critical importance…
Out of control budget deficit
The information on Fiscal Operations in the first quarter of 2018-19 has been released recently by the Ministry of Finance (MOF). The consolidated fiscal deficit for the quarter is Rs…
Runaway budget deficit
The information on Fiscal Operations by the Federal and Provincial Governments for the first nine months of 2017-18 has been released recently by the Ministry of Finance (MoF). The bottom…
