Fiscally responsible governance – I
The economics of a government, in many ways, is not different from that of a household. A prudent household is one that remains within its available resource envelop. More prudent…
Another year
It is a new year. As is the wont, there is great interest in knowing how this will turn out to be for a country that has become predictable only…
Fiscal challenges
The two immediate challenges facing the economy are fiscal and external accounts sustainability. They are inextricably linked. Indeed, fixing the fiscal would have a salutary effect on the external. The…
Four years
Surviving protests against unsubstantiated allegations of rigging in the 2013 elections in the first two years, followed by the Dawn leaks controversy, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has entered the fifth…
2016 – What a year it was!
In my memory, after 1971, last year was the most depressing in Pakistan's 69-year history because the human tragedies, cases of massive corruption in state offices, gross administrative neglect, and…
What is the critical question this year?
The critical question this year is not whether the budget 2016-17 is pro-poor and pro-development (a standard normal government claim) or pro-growth (proposed by economists and claimed as his objective…
The year end blues
As the year draws to an end there are conflicting views on the current economic situation of Pakistan. On the one hand, the stock market is booming and crossing new…
Invigorating fiscal management – I
Since the introduction of the 18th Constitutional Amendment, incorporated in the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan ["the Constitution"] on April 10, 2010, fiscal management, both at federal and provincial…
Understanding current account balance
There is a general perception among economic reporters and economic analysts in both print and electronic media that surplus in current account is highly desirable and a sign of economic…
‘2015: the year of accountant’: MoF’s response
This refers to an article published in Business Recorder titled "2015: the year of accountant". The article is more political than economic and financial, but the language is uncomplimentary by calling the…
