C a n P a k i s t a n g e t o u t o f t h e i s ?

G e t t i n g o u t n e e d s e f f o r t by a l l

In today’s most difficult economic conditions, every responsible citizen wants to know why the current economic situation has happened; is there a way out of this situation and if so what role can an ordinary citizen play in it? here are some simple answers to these questions the first question is how the current situation developed to understand the answer consider the following facts:

(a) during the first seven months of the current fiscal year, Pakistan s exports were recorded at $16 43 billion, while remittance receipts were $16 61 billion in total, the inflow of dollars was $33 04 billion (b) during these months, outflow of dollars due to imports was recorded at $33 45 billion, thus the current account deficit was only $0 42 billion dollars, which is 94 percent less than the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year (c) in the above-mentioned period there was a seven percent decrease in exports and eight percent decrease in remittances compared to the previous financial year if either of these two had maintained their previous year s volume the current account would have been in surplus in normal circumstances with a deficit of only $0 42 billion such a huge fall in foreign exchange reserves and such a bad deterioration in balance of payments should be very unlikely a large economy like Pakistan should not have to worry about such a small deficit But the debt servicing was the root cause of difficulties in balance of payments during the said period, Pakistan spent more than $10 billion on foreign debt repayment in normal circumstances obtaining a new loan on repayment of the existing loan happens to be quite easy if the loan transaction were continued as usual such difficulties would not have arisen But the no Confidence Move and termination of an elected government negatively affected the perception of the outside world about Pakistan s political system the friendly countries and international financial institu-