While Imran Khan preaches about family values, a tsunami of inflation is heading towards Pakistan

Rarely have I seen a ruler so oblivious to the tsunami heading his way. While Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is busy preaching family values to the country on a daily basis, the spiral of inflation that is heading in its direction once the combined impact of the petrol and power price hikes work their way through the system will set off a chain of consequences that even the most devoted “spin masters” would struggle to contain. And that is just the beginning.

There is no telling how the talks with the International Monetary Fund are going but it is easy enough to see that they are not progressing smoothly. Whether they eke out an agreement in Washington, DC, or return with nothing more than a commitment to keep talking (like they did in June), the days to come will have to see further hikes in petrol and power prices, more taxes, further depreciation of the exchange rate and hikes in interest rates. The market is already pricing all this in. The only question is how far will it all go.

Financial markets

Consider what is happening in the financial markets. Last Friday, Pakistan’s former finance minister Shaukat Tarin told us that the talks with the Fund are…

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