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This is a budget for the rich

The major issue with the federal government’s recently announced budget is its failure to convince anyone outside the government’s core supporters that it can achieve its intended results. Another significant…

Outlook for 2024-25

The last week’s article on outlook for 2024-25 by this writer in Business Recorder had focused on the projections for the year of the GDP growth rate, level of investment…

Moving beyond the IMF

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif seems to have a dogged determination to get rid of external loans and the programmes of the International Monetary Fund. The prime minister doesn’t want the…

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…

Local puzzles, foreign pieces

Here’s the latest twist in the saga of Pakistan’s economic spectacle: we’ve decided to bring in a foreign expert to whip up a “homegrown” economic development plan. Yes, you heard…

Budget: inflation must be top priority

Inflation is pushing an ever increasing number below the poverty line (currently estimated at 40 percent comparable to Sub-Sahara Africa) and the critical question that should, not likely to be,…

Sustainable wheat crop: strategies

The recent wheat crisis in Pakistan can be attributed to two primary factors. Firstly, the Punjab government abruptly withdrew from the market, leaving room for the private sector to exploit…