TechLahore

does absolutely nothing for the country’s finances. the damage has been done already, the government has almost doubled it’s debt in the last two years. while the country faces virtually no economic growth. I don’t even see the point of publicizing the stock markets’ temporary run, seeing how foreing investors have all but left the country and the only ones to profit are the local investors.

Sorry to say, but what a freakin’ stupid comment, nautilus. Local investors count for nothing?

If you think 4+% is no economic growth then you are inventing some new form of economics.

“freakin’ stupid”

… shows the level of maturity.

4% of what? economic growth? you have to be kidding me, not even the IMF believes the statistical data the government provides regarding the macroeconomic indicators. please stop deluding yourself, the actual GDP growth rate falls around 3% if not less. you suffer from lack of growth in jobs available for your expanding population while inflation continues unchecked. what does the government do to fund its budget? the same thing PPP or any other political party in power has done for the last twenty years, borrow money from the IMF and WB! you have nearly doubled your debt without planning any way of paying it off.

every Pakistani owes almost a $1000 to creditors that fund the government. what in the world are local investors going to do when you are dealing with the entire country going down a sink hole of debt? are the stock investors going to suddenly sell their shares and out of sheer patriotic fervor, bail out the government? huh? tell me, what in the world are you going to do? you can’t even solve your power crisis, every solution seems to be riddled with corruption at every corner. how in the world are you going to provide electricity to private industries to drive your economic growth? 30% of your textile industry, the most important sector in your country, has already died thanks to the power crisis and this is old news dating back about a year ago. tell me, what are you going to do? huh?

gimme a break! yeah, the country’s entire export industry has died that’s why we’ve exported more this past year than in any year since 1947. go look up the stats. we just broke historic export records.

looks like you haven’t been reading the papers, because new electricity plants have been coming on line regularly. do you see load shedding going up from last summer or going down?

and don’t hyperventilate about debt. pakistan’s debt:gdp ratio is very much within the average for a developing country. india is more indebted, not to mention the us.

looks like you need to calm down and get a grip. repeat after me: the world is not ending! the world is not ending!

yes, can you provide an explanation for the “historic” increase in exports? oh, let me help you, your currency dropped from 60 Rs. to more than 80 Rs. per dollar, that is why your exports have gone up. as for the historic increase, stop the silliness, from 2007-2008 you had more exported in that year compared to this one. it was after these years, your economy took a downfall and still is trying to recover. even if you increase exports, what matters is if you can balance it out with your imports and hope to achieve a trade surplus if not an affordable trade deficit. what happened this year? you forgot to mention that your imports are also “historically” at their highest! the growth in imports in ratio to you exports, is uneven, growing mostly in imports.

electricity issues have not been solved, don’t lie with me. your RPP deals are riddled with corruption, and will force you to pay inflated costs for electricty which you won’t even have most of the time. this isn’t in my own words, it was the ADB which discovered the rampant corruption in your energy tenders. feel free to celebrate when you have about two or three hours of less loadshedding. of course, remember that you paid too much for it! as for debt, you really don’t seem to undertsand exactly how much debt Pakistan has, nor do you understand what it means for your country. especially when half of this debt was accumulated in only the last two years.

it’s clear the only thing we can do now, is avoid facing the harsh realities. instead, we provide cosmetics to any news, without giving it a closer look. the nation is going down a sinkhole and the only thing people can do is reassure each other that tomorrow will be a better day.

I wonder why we have to get so emotional about this topic. If things are as dire as some claim, let events play out. I have personally heard dozens of more dire predictions made regarding Pakistan that never materialized (Imminent takeover of Islamabad by the unstoppable Buner Taliban, anyone? )

On the other hand, for those who are more hopeful, there’s nothing wrong with hope! What do they say about it being better to light a candle than to curse the darkness? So as long as hope and optimism are accompanied by hard work it is the best any human being can do. And what’s wrong with that?

Net-net, why the anger and emotion?

techlahore, it’s not so much that the country is in dire situation. it’s really just anger coming into terms with the fact that Pakistan, only a few years ago, was the second fastest growing economy (one year) and third fastest throughout the other years. what took us from a GDP growth rate of 7-8% all the way down to 1-2.5%? what in the world happened, what went wrong? analysts talked of adding the letter “P” to BRIC, adding Pakistan to the list of the fastest growing economies. what happened?

Global recession,energy crisis,terrorism crisis,increase in corruption.Thts what happened.

All of that… and the people of Pakistan have to ultimately take responsibility for voting in a government which is far less effective than the previous one. I hope this issue is fixed in the next election.