“So stability has been achieved but not growth.”
“Right, that is the mantra!”
“What do you mean?”
“You want my definition or the government’s definition or the international definition?”
“Oops; OK, start off with the international definition.”
“I don’t see why, - I mean it’s not as if we follow the international data gathering methodology which accounts for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) giving a technical assistance (TA) to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics…”
“So it’s resolved then!”
“Well, the TA will be completed by June 2026 so no, not yet. Besides, I can cite many TAs whose recommendations were not followed – remember the access to justice TA, the TA for land reforms by computerization that would enable the role of patwaris to become redundant…”
“Let us pray sincerely that…”
“Don’t be facetious anyway, stabilization from an international perspective should lead to a reduction in fluctuations in economic activity caused by business cycles.”
“Ah, so the boom bust cycles are over!”
“Nope, not yet, but international definition of stabilization implies an outcome: steady growth which remains elusive.”
“Hey we have strengthened our reserves to 14 billion dollars though they are debt based, then we have achieved a sustainable current account balance, but that was achieved not through an improved trade balance (though we have curtailed imports through administrative measures) but through borrowing from external sources…”
“Granted that the boom bust cycle is still with us, but we are adhering to the path towards stabilization – implementing fiscal policy partly (raising tax revenue but with spending for current expenditure continuing to rise) and monetary policy (discount rate even though reduced is higher than the regional average) to mitigate problems like inflation (by the way the Fund TA aims to revisit the Producer Price Index) and unemployment (of around 22 percent as per the recent Household survey carried out by PBS).”
“I am going to take the glass away from you”
“Excuse me?”
“If you don’t have a glass, how can you determine whether it’s full or half full or…”
“Hey, I am very thirsty.”
“The economic team leaders are using the tools, 100 percent full glass, so shut up and wait for the results.”
“Shouldn’t we try to…”
“Shut up.”
“What is your definition of stabilization?”
“The status quo.”
“Hybrid…”
“Shut up.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025