January 2009

January In the aftermath of Bhutto’s death

Following a three-day shut-down, the benchmark index, the KSE100 index, of the Karachi Stock Exchange fell 4.7 percent. The rupee fell to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar since October 2001. The stock exchange has a history of recovering after political unrest. The Pakistan Railways suffered losses of PKR 12.3 billion as a direct result of riots following the assassination. 63 railway stations, 149 bogies, and 29 locomotives were damaged within two days of Bhutto’s death. In the first four days after the assassination, Karachi suffered losses of $1 billion. By the fifth day, the cost of country wide violence amounted to 8% of the GDP.   Read More »2008: Pakistan economic events

Government’s real challenges are reducing fiscal and current account
deficit and increasing tax-to-GDP ratio
By M. Sharif

The year 2008 has passed into history leaving behind visible scars on the national economy, and the economies of the developed and emerging world. A cursory look at macroeconomic indicators of the country clearly indicates that gains made during the past seven years were lost during the year under reference. How, and why, all this happened and what will be its spill-over effects during 2009? These are some of the important questions that economists, financial analysts and managers of national economy will have to live with for taking corrective measures. The global financial crisis also took place during 2008 and has raised many Read More »State of the Pakistan economy: on the edge of precipice

By Shahid R. Siddiqi

ON the demise of Soviet Union 18 years ago, US president George H.W. Bush announced the emergence of a New World Order. He said: ‘A hundred generations have searched for this elusive path to peace, while a thousand wars raged across the span of human endeavour’.Read More »The changing economic epicentre of the world