Performance and challenge

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2019 IN an article titled ‘Boom or bust’ published in Dawn two years ago, I had posed the question whether the then government would behave any differently from its predecessors and, while hoping it would, answered that, “as in the past, we will fill up the tank with borrowed money for fuel, […]

A low value-added export trap

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22nd, 2019. While there has been much debate about the strengths and weaknesses of Pakistan’s economy, the one thing that no observer of the economy can deny is its predictability. A balance-of-payments crisis forced the government to enter into an IMF stabilisation package a decade ago as did another crisis five[…]

A turning point

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2019. ECONOMIC history is a fascinating subject, and at its exciting best when one tries to explain to graduate students why Britain was the first country to have undergone the Industrial Revolution, or why Japan was the first non-Western country to do so — or more recently, the unparalleled high growth rates[…]