Building and modernising infrastructure will ‘crowd in’ private investment in industries

Number has gone up on back of debt-led consumption in Pakistan

Political opportunism in absence of structural reforms leaves economy stunted.

IDBs have provided vital financing in past for giving push to industrialisation

Lack of investment means GDP growth has remained range-bound

Research shows well-integrated natural monopoly entails welfare gains

Foreign debt means short-term measures at cost of long-term economic development

Balancing short-term accounts by rolling over debts is not sustainable

Govt presented a conventional and cautious budget