PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif is right to note that the US-Iran conflict has adversely affected Pakistan and other regional economies. It is no surprise that wars, energy disruptions and geopolitical uncertainty hurt fragile economies like Pakistan. However, his emphasis — often repeated by our economic managers — on ‘stabilisation’ raises a critical question. This is one term that is heard daily in official discourse. Over the years, ‘stabilisation’ has perhaps become the most misunderstood and abused term in policy jargon. Broadly speaking, stabilisation for the sake of stabilisation is not an economic strategy; it is merely survival management to temporarily prevent a balance-of-payments collapse, steady the exchange rate or improve headline macroeconomic indicators. It does not........

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