World

Pakistani voters head to the polls on Thursday amid a deep-seated economic crisis. Inflation is hovering at 30 percent, close to 40 percent of people live below the poverty line, and the debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio has climbed to 72 percent. Pakistan’s new government will have to contend with these and an ageing public infrastructure. “We have power outages every day for two hours,” says Muhammad Waqas, a janitor from Islamabad. “In the summer, when it’s hot, you sit idly and suffer.” As with other state-owned firms, the inability of successive governments to invest in Pakistan’s National Transmission and Despatch Company has left it prone to failure. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and energy supply challenges dampened Pakistan’s growth prospects and constrai...

Bangladesh, since its liberation in 1971, has undergone a profound economic transformation, evolving from one of the world’s most impoverished nations to one of the fastest-growing economies. Despite significant progress in indicators such as the Human Development Index (HDI) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), recent external shocks, particularly from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, have brought attention to the vulnerabilities in the nation’s economic landscape. In the face of adversity, Bangladesh showcased resilience by achieving GDP growth of 3.4% in 2020, outperforming many developing nations and earning accolades for its government’s adept management. However, the subsequent move to seek a US$4.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fun...

In 2023, Bangladesh experienced the worst macroeconomic instability in recent years. While until 2019, the country was cited as a successful case of macroeconomic stability, the Covid-19 pandemic inflicted a significant scar in 2020 and 2021. While the economy went through a recovery process in late 2021 and early 2022, the war in Ukraine and resultant global supply shock triggered domestic macroeconomic instability, which persists. The crisis has affected the economy through various channels. The monthly average inflation rate (January-November) increased from 7.6 percent in 2022 to 9.5 percent in 2023. Export earnings increased by only 2.4 percent in January-November 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Remittance growth through formal channels was only 1.7 percent in January-No...

Gross domestic product expanded 5.2 percent, as China worked to export more to make up for weak demand, high debt and a steep property contraction at home. Car production set records in China last year. Restaurants and hotels were increasingly full. Construction of new factories surged. Yet China’s economic strengths conceal weaknesses. Deep discounts helped drive car sales, particularly for electric cars. Diners and travelers chose cheaper dishes and less expensive hotels. Many factories ran at half capacity or less because of weak demand inside China, and are working to export more to make up for it. China’s economy grew 5.2 percent last year as it rebounded from nearly three years of stringent “zero Covid” pandemic control measures, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics ...

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni expressed admiration for the substantial contributions of Indian returnees to his country's economic development, during the 19th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Kampala. Commending their achievements, he highlighted the 900 factories built by Indian returnees since their arrival. "I was asking people how many factories have been built by our Indian returnees. They told me about the 900 factories that they had built since they came back.", he said. Reflecting on Uganda's history, especially the expulsion of Asians, mainly Indian Ugandans, during Idi Amin's regime, President Museveni openly acknowledged the government's past mistakes. He highlighted the adverse consequences of Amin's actions, including the economic impact on Uganda. Notably, Ind...

Pakistan remained exceedingly vulnerable to climate change and faced rates of warming considerably above the global average, as per the report. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that Pakistan faced one of the worst economic crises in its history in 2023, with poverty, inflation and unemployment soaring, jeopardising millions of people's rights to health, food and an adequate standard of living, Dawn newspaper reported. A dark street in a commercial area in Lahore, Pakistan.(Bloomberg)A dark street in a commercial area in Lahore, Pakistan.(Bloomberg)In its 740-page 'World Report 2024', made available on Friday, the HRW reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries, and observed that the insistence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on austerity and the removal of s...