Pakistan outlook 2013 – II
The biggest worrying factor is the growing size of domestic and external debt that has risen to Rs 14.8 trillion. Based on the official size of GDP of Rs 19.…
Make-or-break month for Merkel’s deputy Roesler
Germany's deputy chancellor, Philipp Roesler, faces a make-or-break month as head of the Free Democrats, with a key speech to his pro-business party Sunday and elections in his home state…
Our growth diagnostics
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina opens with this line. This dictum holds true not only for…
The silent bystanders
The curious rumblings being witnessed on the eve of yet-to-be announced elections in Pakistan can be perceived as a game between entrenched political insiders, mainly consisting of the two major…
Politicians` influence
The brutal gang-rape and torture of `Nirbhaya`, a 23-yearold physiotherapy student in New Delhi on Dec 16 led to spontaneous countrywide demonstrations of a kind never seen before. The young…
Pakistan outlook 2013 – I
Internal factors are surely influenced by combination of political and domestic challenges that have led to a low GDP growth now hovering around 3 percent, with bank lending to private sector…
Poor man’s justice
Two hundred and fifty-nine people died in the Baldia garment factory fire tragedy in Karachi on Sept 11, 2012. Before this, the highest number of people killed in a factory…
Do we need better regulated hedge funds?
As a special investment vehicle designed for large institutions and rich investors, hedge funds are notorious for their ruthless trading strategies aiming to reap high returns, usually these returns come…
Discouraging FDI
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is vital for the health of any economy. For Pakistan's developing economy, considered by foreign investors as a high risk one, FDI is critical due to…
2008 versus 2013
In my article, ‘The worst is still to come’, published on January 1, I had written that “under the most likely business-as-usual scenario, Pakistan’s economic downturn is likely to gain…
