IMF Executive Board has approved $6 billion Extended Fund Facility for Pakistan with its textbook stipulations: macroeconomic adjustment and structural reforms. The detailed agreement shows that IMF is specific on stability measures but generic on systemic transformation. Does it mean we are heading toward another short run pain without any long run gain? In the […]
Structural reform is need of the hour
Pakistan’s economic woes are perennial and complex, and those offering simple solutions (populist leaders, ‘polymaths’ on primetime television, etc.) are either naïve or dishonest. Similarly, mainstream policy discourse is myopic and palliative; however, sustainable development requires farsighted and curative policies. In economic literature, ‘Structural reforms’ has become the buzzword for such policies. Structural reforms are […]
Pakistan’s BoP Crisis is an issue of Political Economy
Thirst for objectivity has led economists to ignore naked social reality while focusing on number crunching and deductive reasoning. With Pakistan entering in its 13th IMF program since 1988, mainstream policy discourse is permeated by figures loaded with heavy economic jargon. Yet, the underlying causes for persistent Balance of Payments (BoP) crisis are not purely […]