Dealing with ‘debtocracy’
Total debt servicing increased by around 57 percent during FY 2018-19 compared with last fiscal year which was driven by higher domestic interest payments (on account of rise in domestic…
Structured access to IMF
The principle of international economic law prescribes foreign exchange stability of the member countries and it recognizes that the essential purpose of the international monetary system is to provide a…
IMF’s projections for 2019-20
The first review report prepared by the IMF staff became available in late-December 2019. This followed the successful completion by Pakistan of this review. All the performance criteria were met.…
IMF’s optimism
Pakistan has been able to get access recently to the IMF’s Rapid Financing Facility in light of the adverse impact of the Covid-19 on the ‘lives and livelihoods’ of the…
The forthcoming budget
The Federal and Provincial Budgets for 2020-21 are expected to be announced in the month of June, starting with the presentation of the Federal Budget on the 5th of June.…
Key features of budget 2020-21
The objective of this article is to highlight the key features of the Federal and Provincial Budgets for 2020-21, starting with revenues, moving on to issues of expenditure and concluding…
Lower budget deficit in 2019-20
The information on fiscal operations in 2019-20 by the federal and provincial governments was released a few days ago. The very pleasant surprise is that the consolidated fiscal deficit has…
Pakistan’s tryst with the IMF
Second chances are rare. Pakistan has had innumerable chances of participating in loan programmes supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But this is half the truth. Most of the…
IMF: rhetoric and reality
All the hullabaloo and rhetoric aside, it was never a question of ‘would?’ but of ‘when’. The Finance (Supplementary) Bill, 2021 – aka the mini-budget – recently rammed through the…
Budgetary impact of SOEs
The Federal Ministry of Finance has published a report recently on the state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The focus is on the triage of reforms and the way forward. This report has…
