Dated IMF staff report
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) uploaded documents early 11 October Pakistan time, nearly thirteen weeks after the Staff Level Agreement (SLA) was reached on 12 July on a 7 billion-dollar…
IMF programme: lack of ingenuity?
The narrative led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is that the economy has begun to show signs of improvement, reflected by a contracting current account…
Insurgency and social change
THE recent killing of seven barbershop workers from Punjab in Gwadar is another indicator that the insurgency in Balochistan is evolving and intensifying demographic changes, which will impact the sociopolitical…
Khan’s moment of truth
WHAT is happening now is not unfamiliar to Pakistan’s treacherous power politics. The signs of rupture are evident in its ranks as the PTI faces a massive crackdown. Several prominent…
Stability versus general well-being
Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb since he took oath ten days less than six months on 12 March 2024 has repeatedly claimed that stabilisation has been achieved, and that his…
All is not quite well!
A reality check shows a yawning gap between the relatively small audience (external more than internal as the country proactively seeks more external loans) that remains the focus of the…
Pakistan and IMF
The second and final review of the nine-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was reached this week past (announced on 20 March 2024) however macroeconomic indicators…
Design flaws in IMF programme
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes are regarded as well designed by other multilaterals (with routine consultation amongst themselves on not only synchronizing their policies but also ensuring that there…
Charter of economy: a non-starter
The concept of all political parties signing off on a charter of the economy has been consistently raised by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership with the stated objective of…
Poverty on the rise
Poverty levels have risen from 34.2 percent in 2022 to 39.4 percent in 2023, pushing 12.5 million people below the poverty line as per data shared by World Bank officials…
