Climate change, debt, and inflation
“If you’ve been feeling confused and as though everything is impacting on you all at the same time, this is not a personal, private experience,” says historian Adam Tooze. “This…
A mission-oriented Budget
Never before in 75-year history of the country has Annual Budget been so important. Now that Pakistan has struggled to restart the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme even though it…
Economic stress
Since around September 2021, and especially since April last year, economic stress has come to Pakistan from a number of sources. First is political instability for many months now, which…
Options to address rising inflation
The SBP (State Bank of Pakistan) is trying to check inflation through just one instrument, the interest rate, based on the theological belief that the issue is demand, ignoring other,…
The exchange rate: a steady hum of discontent
No economic variable captures the popular imagination in Pakistan more than the exchange rate. After Pakistan moved from a fixed to a flexible market exchange rate in the summer of…
After the IMF tranche
On December 16, 2021 at a Hamdard University seminar where Dr Miftah Ismail was another speaker, I had said that Pakistan as a state is no longer a ‘going concern’.…
Lender of everyone’s resort
Sri Lanka defaulted on its sovereign debts in April 2022. In July 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that 53 more low-and-middle-income countries, including Pakistan, were either experiencing debt…
Prices and inflation
It is quite clear that overall the monetary policy tool of raising policy rate to rein in inflation has not had any breakthrough for any significant period of time. In…
Political turbulence has affected FDI inflows
Given its brittle balance of payments position and urgent need to boost industrial production, Pakistan must progressively increase its mobilization of foreign resources; and that is not just an argument!…
CPEC: a game changer or …?
Today all three national parties - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – are fully supportive of projects under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).…
