Pakistan’s Structural Economic Woes on November 22, 2022Amid recent stagflation, the Pakistani economy is trapped in a scenario where the country is faced with low growth prospects, persistent macroeconomic imbalances, and enlarged vulnerabilities of a sizeable fraction of the populace. The donors, in general, and the IMF, in particular stress short-run demand management policies like budgetary reforms, prudent monetary policy, the policy […]
Economic Prospects Amid Uncertainty on November 4, 2022Pakistani markets have been under persistent uncertainty since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The situation has been further aggravated by the Russian-Ukraine conflict, surge in global commodity prices, sharp depreciation of the Rupee, and recent havoc by the deadly floods. Overall, the uncertainty has turned into an economic scenario where the country is faced […]
Do the Surrogate States Deliver? on October 26, 2022While recently reviewing a paper on “Industrial Civilization,” which was presented in a webinar at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), I came across the concept of a Surrogate State-a state that can deliver in terms of transition to industrial civilization, as was advised in the paper. Surrogate State was described as a state, […]
Can we Prevent Domestic Violence? on October 3, 2022On a sunny afternoon in September, I encountered several police vehicles in front of a farmhouse in Chak Shahzad, Islamabad. Upon inquiring why I was told that a woman had been murdered by her husband earlier that morning and the police were summoned to interrogate this. I discovered that the woman concerned was a Pakistani-born […]
Post-Floods Rehabilitation on September 21, 2022Floods have caused massive devastation by damaging human lives, properties, infrastructure, and crops. With a human loss of nearly 1550 people and injuries of more than 12,000, around 33 million people have been displaced. Approximately, 1.92 million houses are destroyed, with a loss of 375 bridges and more than 12,500 kilometres of roads. Likewise, 3.6 […]
On the Economic Costs of Floods on September 7, 2022The climate-induced monsoon rains in Pakistan have turned into a humanitarian crisis with substantial human and economic losses. In addition to its static havoc, the crisis has signalled far more calamities in future, given our current vulnerabilities to climate-led shocks on one hand and our negligence to such shocks, on the other. Though the downpour […]
What Impedes Pakistani Exports? on August 24, 2022We have recently seen the risks of default looming in Pakistan amid persistent current account deficit, burgeoning external debt obligations, and recent uncertainty-led depreciation of the Rupee. Pakistan has been a foreign exchange deficient country since the beginning, as is shown by our history of 22 approaches to the IMF. A simple explanation is that […]
Too many regulations, not much competitiveness on May 31, 2021Recently, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) has published a comprehensive reform agenda elaborating on all the necessary steps and processes that are deemed as essentials for accelerated and sustained growth of the domestic economy. The 8th pillar of the agenda titled as openness, competitiveness, and comparative advantage accentuates on market regulations that ensure healthy […]
Cost of sugar industry regulations on May 13, 2021Market regulations are exercised to ensure efficiency in production, streamline standard-setting, and provide protection to consumers by ensuring quality products at competitive prices. Alternatively, regulations are aimed at providing a legal framework to create a business environment based on healthy competition for improving economic efficiency, developing competitiveness, and protecting consumers from anti-competitive practices. Though regulations […]
State-owned enterprises in Pakistan — a drain on the economy on November 29, 2018State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are business enterprises across the globe which are created and managed by the governments of various countries. Currently, there are around 1500 state-owned multinationals in the World, having more than 86,000 wholly/partly subsidiaries. One-third of them are located in the European Union while more than 50 percent of them are owned by […]