Current Account Deficit: a wake-up call
The optimism displayed by the Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on his handling of the economy, based on not only the controversial data released by those entities that are under…
The IMF-govt trust deficit
The Pakistani public is being subjected to extremely disturbing macroeconomic indicators with each subsequent update showing a worsening trend - data-set sourced to government entities, including the Pakistan Bureau of…
IMF and the ideal of accountability
The international lending agencies are often under criticism that they dole out loans to developing countries while foregoing due diligence of the systems set-up for the transparency of purposeful utilisation…
Budget with a sanity deficit
At a time when Pakistan is going through some of the worst economic challenges in its chequered history, the federal government has come up with a budget that speaks volumes…
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),…
Reducing C/A deficit
The rupee has taken a real beating last week, falling by 8 percent with respect to the dollar. There are both structural and short-term reasons for this precipitate fall. The…
Current tax regime – an impediment to growth
Pakistan’s tax regime is perhaps one of the biggest impediments to economic growth. High tax rates and complexity discourage the undocumented economy to enter the tax net whilst stifling capital…
Controlling inflation and financing deficits — I
In April 2020, Intern-ational Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director (MD) had reportedly called the Covid pandemic a ‘crisis like no other’, and a Guardian article ‘We are living through the…
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…
