OPINION: Growth model and IMF conditionalities — II |
In doing so, the authorities, the like-minded multilaterals like IMF, and World Bank, among others, there strongly appears to be continuous march going on in policy circles, with deep blinkers to this opposing research that is highly critical of neoliberal and austerity assault. This, in turn, has not allowed the country to break away from the ‘boom-bust’ economic growth cycles, and that too very short spaced.
The problem is not that it is a consumption-oriented, not investment-oriented, growth model because that is only looking at the ‘consequences’ and not dealing with the two main ‘causes’ that lead to these consequence, and which are mainly following neoliberal, and austerity policies, being practiced quite actively in Pakistan since around late 1980s – given since then the country has gone through more than two dozen IMF programmes which, at the same time, pales the argument carried in policy circles as an otherwise quite baseless cliché that during the first two decades of the country’s active involvement with IMF programmes, the country was notoriously called ‘a one-tranche’ country.
The following discussion, in the light of the findings of the book, and the deeper base of research for decades that such findings also rely on – in addition to their own, very meaningful research – elucidates as to why these two causes do not allow creating competitiveness, reach meaningful level of inclusive economy, both of which lead to lack of investment-oriented nature of economic growth.
Here,........