THE State Bank of Pakistan is trying to check inflation through just one instrument, the interest rate, based on the theological belief that the issue is demand, ignoring other, more critical factors fuelling inflation today. There are both demand pull and cost-push factors influencing inflation, and this instrument is being expected to achieve multiple objectives. The sources of demand in t
In nine months of this fiscal year (between July 2022 and March 2023), the PML-N led government borrowed more than Rs2 trillion from banks to meet budgetary requirements, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. In the same period of the last fiscal year (between July 2021 and March 2022), the then PTI-led federal government borrowed Rs969 billion. The government’s need for borrowing has been o
In Pakistan, as elsewhere, the continuing multiple crises are opening up new opportunities for a gradual shift in policy and business practices as changing ground realities tend to destabilise the status quo. This emerges from the views of firm owners about present business conditions, future business outlook as well as the increasing number of new firms incorporated with the Securities and Exc
The Pakistani government and banks are in a toxic relationship: the former has sort of an addiction to spending way more than it earns, which the latter is more than happy to feed off. At this point, both seem to have become pretty content with their incompetence and need each other to survive — for they know no other way. The government has no idea, or at least the guts, on how to increase its
The latest report, Survival of the Richest by Oxfam (a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organisations), highlights the perilous issue of the explosion of inequality around the world. The world has been divided into two segments, haves and have-nots. The prevailing tax structure and neoliberal economic policies are just in favour of the tiny elite and cause a polycrisis