Makkada economy

The Makkada Sultanate considers its economy to be sum of all goods and services created or improved in Makkada; the livelihoods Makkadi workers, including those currently without jobs; the worth of dinar compared to other currencies; and the percent of goods and services that are either imported or exported during the course of a year. Considering the health of the economy, especially trade, as a whole is not unknown in the Spiral Empire, but Vizier of Coin Kamar edj-Rahm first had the idea to measure and track the economy the same way Ju meteorologists track rainfall. They first put into writing the four pillars of the economy (GDP, quality of life, currency, and trade) and many of their tools of measurement are still used today.

## Measurement

The biggest program in the vizier of coin's purview is the administration of statistics (AS), which is responsible for collecting raw data from every province and city in Makkada. Local arms of AS work closely with governors and labor and business groups to ensure data is as accurate as possible. AS is separated into two parts: short-run, which collects the same statistics each year, and long-run, which does decadal or bi-decadal censuses of more labor-intensive information, including the total population of Makkada. These departments are, respectively, called SRAS and LRAS.

The administration of derivation (AD) takes all collected statistics and uses specially-designed models to determine numbers like: gross domestic product, unemployment, inflation, and expected inflation. They also design models to predict future economic values and the possible results of any fiscal or monetary changes.

### Gross Domestic Product

#### Recessions

The Makkada economy has suffered from four distinct and prolonged recessions since its unification under Queen Dina and subsequent entrance into the Spiral Empire. The first, called the spiral recession, began in 24 SE when the Kuan-Seprum army first arrived on the Mauzji island of Bakr. The destruction of farmland and industry, as well as the death of many tens of thousands of Mauzji workers, resulted in seven years of GDP contraction. When the islands reunited as members of the Spiral Empire, Sultan Bari oversaw a huge boom in productivity.

The second recession, called the reparations crisis, began during Sultan Tarik's rule when rebelling clans attempted to overthrow the government, scaring investors and business owners, destroying trade capital and claiming trade routes, and killing workers. Afya's bargain with the leaders of the rebellion reshaped Makkada's government and violated the treaty that governed their place in the Spiral Empire. In exchange for allowing the reforms, Kuan and Seprum asked for ten years of reparations, which crippled the recovering economy.

Sultan Afya raised taxes to pay for the huge increase in government spending, which harmed citizens and slashed the normal Makkadi social safety nets, consequently reducing confidence and quality of life. Sultan Shari created deficit spending by opening up debt markets across the Spiral Empire and selling debt to private buyers and, more often, other governments, especially Ju and Seprum, but also to civilizations outside the Empire. These government bonds proved great investments and even after the economy recovered, sultans and viziers of coin continued selling them to fund deficit spending. This eventually led to the complex, daily open market operations that the vizier of coin leads in order to stabilize the economy.

The third recession, called the bubble, was caused by excessive investment in newly-created financial markets, which eventually crashed. The fourth recession, called the Great Scare, occurred near the end of the reign of Jailbal Saj, long considered an ally of Makkadi interests. Concerned by the prospects of an independent treasury after her death, investors fled markets and workers fell back to more stable jobs. At the same time, a misunderstanding between traders going to Kuan sparked fears that war might be imminent and a Makkada Sultanate might no longer exist in the future. It took years of hard work by Coin and Sultans Raqat and Makai to calm the markets and return Makkada to steady growth.

### Unemployment

   The three spikes in unemployment occurred during the invasion of the Second Spiral War, crisis of reparations, and Great Scare. The earliest data is extrapolated, as it could not be readily collected at the time. Recent viziers of coin have made the decision to include those killed in war or by poverty in the yearly unemployment rates, which also increases the size of the first spike.

In recent years, unemployment has been far less variable and tends to rest between 3 and 5 percent. At almost all times, wifere are more stably employed, generally in information services such as bureaucracy, accounting, and moneylending, followed by women, who are crafters and traders, and then men, who do more hard labor like farming and mining. Men also tend to earn less on a per decan basis than women and wifere. During recessions, male unemployment tends to go up first and come down last.

Vizier Dhari suggested that Coin start to collect unemployment data by ethnicity, religion, and place of birth (by island and country). The new campaign has yielded intriguing results. To this day, members of Qurakka and Amakka tend to make more and have more steady jobs, though they report only slightly higher quality of life. Members of religious minorities suffer somewhat more during recessions and face some discrimination during job hunts, especially in the cities, where labor markets are less tight.

### Interest Rates

Since 51 SE, interest rates have been set by Coin, which offers a rate on overnight loans to banks, propping up the bottom of the economy. Their goal is to keep interest rates above 2 and below 3 percent, which they generally achieve.

## Fiscal and Monetary Policy

The Makkadi sultan affects the economy in four ways: by spending money on infrastructure projects, by incentivizing research and art through grants, by changing tax rates, and by setting wages in government, which affect urban wages throughout the economy. The vizier of coin has additional power through buying and selling government bonds, regulating banks, buying individual debt, and acting as lender and employer of last resort during downturns.