KARACHI:
Pakistan’s financial system can be complicated, strained and tangled. Burdened by international loans, resource limitations, a growing population and unending geopolitical and strategic spillovers, the country’s financial stakeholders grapple with understanding this multi-faceted situation and often fall short when it comes to finding and delivering solutions to an increasingly restless public.
Take, for instance, the most recent onset of oil and gas crises with knock-on effects in inflation, power cuts and crime expected to follow in the next few months. These intertwined concepts require the polished skills and vision of actuarial experts who not only have the capacity to wade through muddy financial waters but can also help cushion the socioeconomic blow to the general public.
Actuaries, in this time of global emergency and conflict, are valuable, as they have rigorous training to put numbers on these risks and correlate among them. They can support federal and provincial governments through quantification of these risks, turning them into opportunities. Recent reform to pension scheme is a good example of how actuaries are helping governments to shift to a fully funded scheme, which is not only reducing financial burden on governments, but also securing retirement income for employees while bringing significant additional investments to stock and bond markets.
Shoaib Soofi
Karachi
