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…
The 80/20 rule for maximising foreign exchange earnings
Pakistan’s economy has been facing a number of challenges in recent years, including low growth, high inflation, large fiscal and current account deficits, and declining foreign exchange reserves. Despite various…
Communicating climate change
The emergence of non-traditional threats has created several challenges for the regional and international security environment and crisis management. Threats like climate change have magnified the significance of communications during…
Misplaced mercantilism and the case for domestic markets
We are being told that the economy of Pakistan is in absolute free fall. Allegedly, the dominos of economic doom are in motion, and despite all our countless stopgap measures,…
The change constant
In 1997, in a meeting with the Pakistani prime minister, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said that the constant change in governments in Pakistan would often turn everything –…
Change for the better
Pakistan is a country that has a plague-like problem of abusing women, including everything from domestic violence to child marriage. Only recently, the former wife of a much-celebrated actor came…
Exchange rate volatility and exports
The exchange rate is a crucial component of trade and a dynamic macroeconomic determinant. The trade balance is impacted by exchange rate fluctuations. The growth process is slowed down as…
Transformational change
A PROLONGED heatwave has engulfed most of India and Pakistan for the last several weeks, indicating the onset of a ‘new normal’ in the region. The residents of Karachi lost…
Climate change crisis and global response
The existential threat of climate change is unfolding fast, and the window of limiting average global temperatures below 1.5C — to avoid any permanent natured changes to climate, something which…
Foreign exchange earnings
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves on 30 April 2020 as per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) website were 12.329 billion dollars, a respectable amount given the ongoing global pandemic that…
