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…
Infeasible financing of budget deficit
The last two articles by the author of this article in Business Recorder were on 'bloated revenue projections' and 'understated expenditure projections', with regard to the outcome in 2016-17 and the Federal…
Rising trade deficit
The release recently by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) of the summary on foreign trade for the first quarter of 2025-26 carries some warning signs. The trade deficit has…
Floods: budget deficit and/or mini-budget
The flood damage is rising by the day – both in terms of fatalities and financial losses (private and state owned) with the last monsoon rains forecast to end this…
External financing in FY2025-26
One of the key indicators in the federal budget is the projected level of external financing to partly finance the budget deficit. The expectation in 2024-25 was that there would…
Neoliberalism, IMF’s exceptional financing & recidivist behaviour of programme countries—I
Traditionally, Pakistan has been infamously called a ‘one-tranche’ country, which although is correct in the context that it has left International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes after receiving a few initial…
Challenging gross financing requirements
Pakistan is about to enter into an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A July 12 press release from IMF indicated that ‘The Pakistani authorities…
Big financing risks
The IMF Staff Mission has left Pakistan after a series of meetings on the next Fund Programme in the form of an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for the next three…
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…
Low inflows of external financing
The first quarterly review of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) Stand-by Facility has been successfully accomplished by the Government. The efforts of the caretaker Government to adhere to the agreed…
