Budget concerns |
IT is ironic that a stable economy has done little to improve people’s lives. As the current PML-N government prepares its third federal budget, the macroeconomic indicators are much better than the emergency figures of 2022-23. The IMF programme is on track, primary surpluses have been recorded and the government has a defensible ‘economic management’ record to boast of. And yet, citizens feel that the economy is going nowhere. Industries operate below capacity. Investment has stalled. Real wages have not recovered from years of inflation. Millions of young Pakistanis enter the labour market to find it cannot absorb them, and many are leaving the country for greener pastures abroad. This is not a picture........