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IMF and the stalled second tranche

Questions are being raised as to when the 6 billion dollar International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Extended Fund Facility programme will resume, suspended post-March 2020 to enable the administration to deal…

SBP profits rise and need for caution!

Pakistan’s budgetary financing operations (federal and provincial) July-June 2019-20 were released on Wednesday – the day after the briefing on the data to the cabinet on 11 August 2020. Prime…

Export-led strategy: desirable or not?

Razak Dawood the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce in an interview to a foreign news agency last week acknowledged that he is pushing the government to bet big…

State of economy

On 3 November 2020 Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the industrial support package while the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance, Dr Hafeez Sheikh - one of six flanking…

IMF/World Bank reports

The International Monetary Fund’s report titled “Fiscal Monitor: a fair shot” appears to be, at best, coincidental and, at worst, a deliberate rejoinder to recent calls for a revisit to…

The intractable energy sector

Decades long poor planning and flawed policies in the energy sector have finally brought matters to a head and until and unless some bold politically challenging measures are not immediately…

Once again PSEs under the spotlight

In the 4th year of its tenure, the PTI government has diverted its focus to privatisation of Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs). The rhetoric however is much the same as it was…

Charter of economy: a non-starter

The concept of ‘charter of the economy’ was first floated by Ishaq Dar in 2015 as he faced growing criticism for his handling of the economy. By far the most…

A profound question!

Can the Pakistan authorities negotiate a package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that would provide time to identify, agree and implement major structural reforms - particularly in the several…

Colours of discrimination

Sometimes red, and sometimes grey, it is all on merit, that is what they say. Seriously. Probably Not. Like it or not the palette is in their hands. With one…