Special Report: Steering next year’s economic ship

THE two historical events of 2023 — the breakout of the Israel-Palestian war and the spread of artificial intelligence — will continue to impact geopolitics and geoeconomics across all geographical regions throughout 2024. The post-May 9 change in Pakistan’s political landscape in 2023 and the post-Israel-Hamas adjustments in the country’s geopolitical stance may impact the February 8, 2024 elections. The outcome of the elections and the kind of democracy we may have to live with afterwards, plus the strength of the civil military-run Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) established in 2023, will have a far-reaching impact on Pakistan’s economy in 2024 and beyond. The two most important areas to watch closely will be foreign trade and foreign investment and fiscal-monetary coordination. Although SIFC has been set up exclusively for attracting foreign investment, its defined scope of operations is so wide that steering foreign trade in the desirable direction — dramatic growth in exports at the lowest possible increase in imports — will remain largely dependent on SIFC’s workings. So, let’s see what happens.