Water deficit
RATHER than augmenting water productivity, our planners are obsessed with building new reservoirs and expanding irrigated areas. The reason? More structures mean more money. Barring the wet monsoon years, the…
Diplomacy deficit
PAEANS to Joe Biden’s diplomatic skills have been flowing since the fruition of a prisoner exchange between Russia and the West. The deal apparently took years to negotiate. From a…
The issue of trust deficit
Amidst protests by the opposition, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb rolled out with relative calm the national budget 2024-25 at the National Assembly. This budget, by all norms, can be termed “business…
Deficits in our lives
There is this quotation from Einstein that I was surprised to discover: “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax”. And for that matter, it is…
Budget 2024-25: managing the deficit
Our budget deficit last year, as per my estimate, was over Rs13 trillion, and this year it is likely to be Rs11 trillion, against the government’s original estimate of Rs6.5…
Primary surplus, fiscal deficit, over-board austerity policy, and existential threats
International Monetary Fund (IMF) wishes government to have primary surplus, which means that before paying interest payments the country’s expenditure should be less than its revenue. Expenditure constitutes non-development (or…
Counting our deficits
With this week’s advent of Ramazan, our lives have changed in some tangible ways. Our daily routines have acquired a new rhythm. At least in these initial days of the…
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…
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…
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…
