ISLAMABAD (DAWN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Pakistan's new government will face old and persistent problems. The most ominous challenges relate to the state of the economy and, in particular, the food insecurity faced by the poorest of households, both in the rural and urban areas at a time of post-Covid inflation. Matters have been exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
There is no doubt that poor people across the world are struggling to feed their families and Pakistan is no exception. In fact, Pakistan can be perceived as being among the poorest countries. It is true that, officially, it is bracketed with lower middle-income countries, but in terms of per capita income, its position is lower down.
Moreover, the Pakistani population generally spends nearly half of its household budget on food. The figure for advanced economies ranges from six per cent to 8 per cent. The challenge that Miftah Ismail, our new hands-on businessman-cum-finance minister, faces is how to bring affordable food to the table of Pakistan's poor people without further distorting the market, as well as how to create incentives for farmers to produce more food in the country.
Recently, there have been raids on sugar mills, which have given the ominous message of 'business as usual' rather than reflecting an effort to tackle economic and food security challenges through a logical market-enabling approach: ie, without resorting to state thuggery.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has unsettled the...
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