Same could be said about Bush v/s Obama, nai?
Re: Poverty reduced to half in Musharraf’s regime: WB report
Let the experts talk…
Multiple Crises? Post-Musharraf Political, Economic and Strategic Challenges facing Pakistan
…In the economic sphere Pakistan faced equally intractable problems. In the 1980s
Pakistan’s economy had the highest growth rates in South Asia, at over 6%. These dipped
to around 4.5% in the 1990s, for once below Indian growth rates. Economic sanctions
after the nuclear tests of 1998 and increasing inability to meet foreign debt repayments
left the economy in deep malaise by 2000. In the post-9/11 reversion to front line status,
economic buoyancy returned with the resumption of Western economic and military
assistance, money inflows from expatriates insecure over money laundering, capital inflows from privatization, and more stable agricultural performance. Agriculture still
contributed around 25% to GDP. A drastic decline in interest rates and money inflows did
create a consumer spending boom and an aura of prosperity under Musharraf. Pakistan’s
stock market rose from 1,200 in 2000 to 15,000 in 2008, among the best performers
globally. The escalation in both share and property values was underwritten by
historically low interest rates, reduced from above 20% to as low as 5%. Indeed the super
rich emerging under Musharraf, unlike the industrial barons of the 1960s, were some
stock brokers adept at insider trading, who then reinvented themselves as ‘investment
bankers’, and property speculators, mostly closely linked to military generals.
Growth in the 2000s had also been quite imbalanced, in favour of the financial sector.
Banking spreads were among the highest in the world, with bank profits commensurately
high. Expansion in the banking sector was accompanied by some foreign banks acquiring
Pakistani retail banks chains, ensuring extensive branch networks (ABN-AMRO, now
Royal Bank of Scotland, and Standard Chartered bought Prime and Union Banks
respectively, and Barclays is looking for a local acquisition). Manufacturing, on the other hand, began to suffer from loss of international competitiveness, resulting from higher
production costs, especially with rising energy prices and emerging gas and electricity
shortages. Higher financial costs also accrued with the return of higher interest rates,
creating adversity even in Pakistan’s major industry, cotton textiles. The latter was
concentrated at the lower value added spinning segment, with little bargaining power
over foreign buyers. The knitwear segment, which had emerged in the 1990s, had already
relapsed into crisis after 2000, from failure to compete internationally with lower cost
suppliers…