Losing the narrative
IN a review of Anatol Lieven’s book Pakistan: A Hard Country, in the Guardian of May 1, 2011, Pankaj Mishra wrote: “[…] [A]n un-blinkered vision of South Asia would feature…
Modinomics versus Sharifnomics
The world eager to take advantage of a huge Indian market and to promote sale of products to a foreign exchange reserve flush government is visibly taken with Modinomics defined…
Lots of euphoria but little growth
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has kept the policy rate unchanged at 6.5 percent. In the previous policy it had reduced the ceiling of interest rates corridor by 100…
Ups and downs of oil prices
OIL remains the world’s most critical commodity. It has fuelled the industrial age. For over a century, oil politics has been almost synonymous with geopolitics; the cause of numerous wars…
Self-delusions galore
Rarely do prime ministers congratulate their nations on a slight upgrade in credit rating of the country (in this case by Moody's) but our Prime Minister did so. Remember, how…
CPEC: The ‘fate changer’
CPEC is not merely an ordinary economic corridor or a transit trade route, but it would be a fate changer project through which the Pakistani nation would be able to…
Sanctions go, but Iran must wait for economic recovery
Iranian trade will be boosted by a lifting of nuclear-related sanctions but the country needs billions of dollars of investment, and meaningful economic gains are likely to take many months.…
Midway budget
Finance minister Ishaq Dar is preparing to give his budget speech next week at exactly the midway point in his government’s tenure. This will be his third budget speech, and…
Exorcising the budget
The yearly Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has ranked Pakistan 129th out of 144 countries in 2014-15, this compares with 133rd out of 148…
Budget in elitist economy – I
In the coming days, the government of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), having a majority in National Assembly, will get the Finance Bill 2015 passed, without any difficulty, ignoring many sensible…
