Riaz Riazuddin

HOW can we measure the industrial strength of our country? The strength of a human being is the force exerted by his muscles. Muscular strength determines a person’s strength. While there is no simple indicator of industrial strength it can be argued that the production of iron and steel and its share in industry largely determines a country’s industrial strength. ...

“LORD, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.” Shakespeare alludes to human potential which is always higher than its present condition. Allama Iqbal elaborated on this idea in his famous couplet that translates to ‘elevate yourself so high that even God, before issuing every decree of destiny, should ask you: Tell me, what is your ...

UNDER what conditions do we live in our country? A detailed profile of our households is provided by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in its Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey 2019-20 (PSLM). A home is more than just a shelter. A stark feature of our living standards is that 25 per cent of our households are one-room dwellings. ...

WILL our exchange rate woes ever end? Is there a remedy? Each upward movement of the rupee value of the greenback causes anguish. But why do we consider these depreciations so dreadful? We, paradoxically, seek a remedy for a phenomenon which itself is a remedy for several of our economic woes. Remedies are meant to cure diseases. But when a ...

READERS beware. This title could be misleading, but our changing CPI (consumer price index) basket, besides tracking inflation, says a lot about our culture. Our current CPI basket is based on the Family Budget Survey 2015-16, not published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics that prefers to publish the Household Income and Expenditure Survey. With every Family Budget Survey, PBS ...

IS Rs1,400 the real price of a two-pound chocolate fudge cake sold by a good bakery? Not according to economists. This is the nominal price. The real price is what you are foregoing by buying this cake. This is known as the opportunity cost. For example, you could have bought seven kilograms of delicious mangoes, at the nominal price of ...

THE government has finally mustered the courage to raise oil prices in the country. The first hike was announced in May, more than a month after the new government took over, and the next raise came on Thursday night. Our country is already in political disaster mode and is experiencing a balance-of-payments crisis. Was the government’s fear of raising prices rational? Should we be ...

ARE there common elements in the three seemingly disparate situations mentioned in the title of this piece? Perplexingly, yes. Take autarky first. This is a nationalist concept of an ideal, fully self-sufficient country that consumes what it produces; without any imports, exports, foreign investment or indebtedness. Autarky lies at the opposite extreme of free international trade and finance. No country ...

WE often hear assertions by eminent people (including ministers and independent economists) about a fixed value of the US dollar in Pakistani rupees. Can this bluff ever become credible? To answer this question, let us use a line of reasoning known as ‘reductio ad absurdum’ sometimes used by mathematicians to either disprove an assertion by showing that it leads to ...