Macroeconomics of empty promises
The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP’s) foreign exchange reserves have dropped by nearly a billion dollars in just eight weeks, from December 13 to February 7. This decline occurred despite…
Lack of prudent macroeconomic policies
“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design” — Friedrich von Hayek Pakistan is facing a…
Imbalances in NFC award
Asad Umar, the Finance Minister, stated in the Senate Tuesday that he has directed Secretary Finance to initiate the process for the National Finance Commission (NFC) award which, as per…
Important macroeconomic challenges
Pakistan needs a homegrown reform policy that takes strong radical and creative decisions about political economic issues, and balances monetary and fiscal policies, and for that it would have been…
Policy imbalances
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan has announced it policy for October and November. It has kept the policy rate unchanged at 5.75 percent. While…
Battling imbalances
When selecting policy instruments and the timing of interventions, a key question that bedevils decision-makers in the country is how to facilitate growth and contain inflation simultaneously. It has been…
State of economy
THE government cannot stop congratulating itself for stabilising the economy over the past year, while the people don’t know whether to laugh or cry given their ongoing economic hardship. Have…
An IMF-guided budget
Amid its preparation for its 24th IMF programme, the Pakistan government presented an IMF-guided budget for FY2024-25 in June. The crux of the budget is to keep the primary balance…
Reinventing Brand Pakistan
In a previous piece on the subject (‘Where is Brand Pakistan?’ January 22, 2024), I had highlighted how country brands are becoming as important as corporate or product brands, given…
The World Bank says it all
That the growing political uncertainty and institutional imbalances are adversely affecting the country’s perception is a fact. This time it is no other than the World Bank, which has been…
