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    ISAS Insights

    Detailed perspectives on developments in South Asia​​

    33 : The First Budget by the New Coalition Government in Pakistan: Economic Situation and Policy Directions

    Iftikhar A. Lodhi, Research Associate at the ISAS

    9 July 2008

    The troubled coalition government passed its first federal budget (Fiscal Year 2008-09)2 on 22 June 2008, after being in office for a hundred days, amid growing economic woes, political instability, and a deteriorating law and order situation. This paper analyses the budget in a broader macroeconomic framework and examines the policy initiatives that could put the economy back on track and provide the much needed relief to the common man.