National Savings has always been part of discussions and debates in drawing rooms and on streets. This is not asurprise given that National Savings touch the lives of almost 1/4th of each Pakistani directly or indirectly.
There has been a recent debate in the newspapers that the accumulation of FX Reserves over the last three years have been achieved through external borrowings. This is a classic example of viewing a glass of water as “half full or half empty”.
There has been a considerable debate on currency management for a while. The pendulum of currency swung between defending currency to supposedly market based exchange rate in the recent times. The side-effects of both extremes are much clearer in hindsight and this may perhaps be a good time to look at their pros and cons objectively.
Savings play an integral role in promoting economic development and ensuring social welfare in any economy. Social security,
in the form and shape of National Savings instruments, is the most important alternate available, particularly in the developing
countries like Pakistan, in the absence of formal social security set-up.
The impact could be deep and far-reaching on EU and its existence; hence, also on all the trading partners of EU, including Pakistan. There are various dimensions to it – short term versus long term; and after-effects of this decision within and outside Britain and EU, both in terms of economy and on the society as a whole.
Predicting the oil prices is a hundred million dollar question; in literal sense, it’s a game of billions of dollars. This is one of the most difficult tasks, given that there’re too many variables and moving parts on the economic, and more so, on the political fronts. Market punters are not willing to take a view for longer tenors and quote forward rates for larger volumes beyond 2/3 months. The recent phenomenon is surely more political than otherwise.
Pakistan has been faced with power crises and its multiplier effect on the economy for decades. This issue has been reviewed extensively and many options have been debated by experts at private and governmental level. I would like to add my views to this important debate which surely requires quick action. In order to have a coherent and meaningful debate on this subject, it’s critical to divide this topic into two distinct parts – transmission and distribution (T&D or Discos), and generation.
PAKISTAN’S energy crisis and its viable solutions have been extensively debated in the recent past. Two factors that must be kept in mind when discussing any solution are affordability (cost and pricing) and availability (net thermal efficiency/usage) of fuel and electricity. There are no quick fixes to this problem, but some options exist to accelerate the resolution of the issues.
