IMF Prescription Time Again
If the diplomatic and media backlash from Kargil was not enough, IMF tightened the economic squeeze on Pakistan. Insisting on GST of various percentage on electricity, water and gas, IMF delayed the release of the tranche expected by Pakistan in July, the latest date for expecting IMF funds is September. The Finance Minister Mr. Ishaq Dar is quite confident about receiving the IMF funds and the market seemed to agree with him, various financial experts remained pessimistic. Even without IMF adding to the proverbial pound of flesh, we are in serious economic straits. The Finance Minister, an incurable optimist, kept a brave face as he sought to minimise the effect on the common man but he might as well be speaking into the wind, which as everyone knows, can howl but cannot read. More financial misery is in store for the man in the street.
Pre-budget Economic Review – Economic (or Bubonic) Plague? – I
This is the FIRST in a series of THREE articles on Pakistan’s economy)
The Government of Pakistan (GoP) has boxed itself into a corner by its rhetoric about a supposed economic miracle which is far removed from the actual health of the economy and the portents of its future. A relatively moderate (but reasonable) performance by the present regime in the face of concentrated domestic and external economic adversity has come out in bad light because of unnecessary bombast. About expectations and targets set forth far beyond bureaucracy’s ability to accomplish, particularly because adequate documentation of the economy is lacking. Four areas must be studied to obtain a comprehensive overall economic review, viz. (1) Growth, GDP and Production (2) Public Finance (3) Relations with IMF and lastly but most important (4) Inflation and Prices.
Mid-year Economic Review
The Government’s rhetoric expounding the economic miracle that they are supposed to have wrought in the space of a year and some is so different from the actual facts on the ground that when compared with the relatively moderate performance by the present regime, it comes out in bad light. Given that the economic morass we had descended to in 1993 due to the political freeze, for which the present regime has to accept a major share of responsibility because it was the gridlock of administration that they, as the then Opposition, used as a modus operandi to bring down the Nawaz Sharif government, we are not in as bad a shape as we could be, again relatively speaking. The general performance of the economy is considerably short of the over-ambitious expectations and targets, that is the major reason for the increasing loss of confidence in the policies of the Government of Pakistan (GoP). Four areas can be highlighted to give a comprehensive overall economic review, viz. (1) Growth, GDP and Production (2) Public Finance (3) Relations with IMF and lastly but most important (4) Inflation and Prices.