FTAs: Help or hindrance?
With the single-minded national focus on the live discussions going on all through last week in the media over the on-going process of change of guard at the General Headquarters…
Export or bust
As the year slips by Pakistan's public debt has exceeded 22 trillion rupees with external liabilities crossing the $74 billion mark. Add to this amount, the projected external borrowings for…
Indonesian nationalism takes a bite out of Apple
Apple is battling to gain a foothold in Indonesia after nationalistic regulations hit the US tech giant's efforts to compete in the booming emerging market against Samsung and other rivals.…
A law in essence?
Recently, two open tabs on the internet browser left me puzzled. One showed a Twitter quote: ‘no one is above the law’. The other opened on a news headline: ‘PM…
Trust – but verify
The division between rich and poor nations is neither god-given nor does it have divine sanction. It is neither determined by rich deposits of resources (otherwise Angola, Botswana and Congo…
Challenging the received wisdom – II
That our economic managers have been barking up the wrong tree in demonising inflation is obvious...a fact that has been staring us in the face for decades. To drive home…
Gwadar, the CPEC and Hambatota
Notwithstanding the fact that the CPEC is a nationally owned mega-economic undertaking with the potential to change the economic profile of the whole region, more so that of Pakistan, a…
Change elsewhere, Pakistan frozen in time
Winds of change are blowing across Europe and the US. The Brexit vote in Britain was no small thing. Trump’s election as US president signals a profound dissatisfaction with mainstream…
State of economy End of the debate?
The oracles have spoken. Emerging Markets has declared The Accountant South Asian Finance Minister of the year. Wathra's star has risen with Euromoney's Central Bank Governor of the year award.…
The mega rip-offs
In my earlier article The Gravy Trains of Pakistan (Business Recorder September 1, 2016) I had identified the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) of Pakistan as the fountain head of…
