“Has the caretaker finance minister been properly briefed by now?” “I would assume so. She took oath on 17 August so even if the briefings were detailed…”
“Detailed as in time taken?”
“Yes so that leaves room for discussions or directions or…or…well that’s the two options for those giving the briefings.”
“That’s so true – Ishaq Dar would issue directives and I would assume as a former bureaucrat in an international financial institution the caretaker finance minister is likely to veer towards a discussion so that views can be solicited from the domestic bureaucrats…”
“Two observations and one statement.”
“You holding your own court now?”
“Well why not, everyone else seems to be holding their court these days. Anyway, first observation the caretaker finance minister may be trained to discuss with others but I reckon the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance, is not on her list of discussants.”
“Unless she is directed to include him!”
“That’s the pecking order my friend. Second the caretaker finance minister was also the Governor of the State Bank for one term – a post where directives could be issued and…”
“Hmmm, there is a pecking order there too. If the finance minister or the prime minister so directs the governor of the State Bank……”
“Sorry I forgot that. Anyway you mentioned a statement as well.”
“I certainly did, the statement I am referring to came from the Ministry. Any guesses?”
“That the state of the economy is appalling and efforts are ongoing to implement reforms and…”
“Undoubtedly you speak the truth – inflation is no longer bearable up to the lower middle income levels now and the rupee erosion is continuing every day and this is in spite of the strengthening rupee so…”
“Productive units in the private sector are either shutting down or they are downsizing…”
“Yep that’s very true.”
“But I hear a lot of chatter about the need to reduce current expenditure but no actual visible reduction other than for development expenditure that we all know may be one of the primary reasons for the recent downgrade of projected GDP growth to 1.7 from the earlier 3.1 percent and the rise in poverty to 40 percent if the 3.2 dollar a day measure is used but up to 78 percent if the 5.5 dollar a day measure is used…”
“But if the rupee is strengthening then the 3.2 dollar a day would bring in more rupees and so…”
“True but inflation was 31 percent in September instead of the 27 percent in August…”
“Ah indeed, anyway you didn’t guess the statement I was referring to correctly. I was referring to instructions received from the Ministry of Finance requesting all media outlets to use an attached latest photograph of the caretaker finance minister, or so it was claimed……”
“Hey we all are entitled to little vanities that hurt no one.”
“Hmmmmm.”
“Maybe it wasn’t her, maybe it was an over-zealous member of her media cell?”
“Maybe.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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