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When a country is suffering from inherited twin deficits - external balance & fiscal - how in heavens name do our commentators expect any government to correct these imbalances while maintaining growth? Which country has managed strong growth while contending with twin deficits?
Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, UK, India etc have all successfully implemented IMF structural adjustment program and have come out stronger for having done. All these countries saw a period of slowdown and certain hardships for the populace while undertaking these adjustments
In none of these countries did commentators harp on about the need for growth when undergoing major structural reforms- it's an impossibility that only those who believe tooth fairies and Fabian socialism somehow expect to be achieved
It appears that our commentators are unwilling to accept the cruel reality that a short period of hardships is inevitable when rebalancing highly distorted economic fundamentals. Yet the same magic wand operators will quote u the miracle of China, which sacrificed over 50m lives
On its part the PTI government has been singularly incapable of selling a narrative that clearly lays out how bad what we inherited was; why the tough measures with the associated hardships were unavoidable; and how things over a period will start turning around to get better
Instead there were some within the government who were talking of cloud cuckoo claptrap of 100s of billions of $s of loot money being recovered from abroad and overseas Pakistanis doubling this amount by investing like never before.
What was the basis of this fantastical claptrap none seem to have a clue, but wiser heads should have prevented the build up of such false expectations, which was inevitably likely to disappoint. The inability to come to grips with reality is a folly few deserve forgiveness for!
