Country’s economy is going bust and all we care about is PSL Cricket Final
In the first 8 months of the fiscal year (July 17 to Feb 18), inflation has been strictly under control and at 3.8% below target even after a devaluation of rupee in December and GDP growth of close to 6%. This means that there is still excess productive capacity in the economy and prospects for higher growth are bright. Our exports rose 15% in Feb suggesting that some of that excess capacity is being utilised. Our imports went up by 8% in Feb pointing to robust aggregate demand but also to a slowing of the pace of imports and a shift towards domestic production. The current devaluation is also a step in the right direction. This will further increase exports and slow down imports, without putting much pressure on prices. Moreover the increased cost of debt servicing is more than made up by the increased revenues at the import stage. So on balance the current devaluation is a good thing which will bring increased growth and jobs into the economy while addressing our current account deficit. Our economic growth this year will be the highest in 10 years and we will have healthy forex reserves at year-end.
The helicopter drying the outfield
The main commercial centre of Lahore is shut for the second day running and traffic jams all around and an army helicopter is drying Gaddafi stadium grass with military personnel in assistance. We really love our cricket don’t we?
The supporters of this stunt think that it somehow portrays a soft image of Pakistan. People who got stuck for 3 to 4 hours in traffic going home did not use language that was soft. In my view this is very much needed to get rid of all the bad publicity we got after srilankan team incident. International cricket totally taken away and kept away (intentionally) in an effort to demolish Pakistan cricket. Yes, it is a big inconvenience, but as a nation we should be ready to pay a price to come out of deep hole we are in right now. For once I support anything and everything needed to bring back cricket to Pakistan.
World Cup Qualifiers: Some News Today. No ICC World Cup would have been complete without Windies! Feel bad for Scotland but really wanted WI to go through. I think it’s about time ICC considers increasing the number of teams to 12. Would make the tournament a lot more interesting.
Karachi waalon, aap ko PSL Final mubarak!
