bribes. no wonder the country was able to install less than 3 million telephones in the entire 50 years of its history while under a deregulated and private sector driven environment an additional 6 to 7 million mobile phone connections were given to pakistanis from all walks of life without any favour or discrimination in one year alone i. e. 2004. the hangover of the past in general and the lingering fascination for the socialist model among some of our intellectuals in particular continue to have a dominant influence on our thinking. some of the resentment against private profit making is also quite legitimate and understandable. in the past, private entrepreneurs in pakistan did not make ‘ profits ’ in the real economic sense of the word by earning a return on their investment in a competitive world. on the contrary, they earned ‘ rents ’ through the maze of permits, licences, preferred credit by the banks, subsidies, privileges, concessions and specific sros granted to the favoured few. naturally when one sees people becoming rich not through the dint of their hard work and enterprise but by manipulation, back door entry, connections, reciprocity, paying bribes, adopting extra legal means, bypassing the established rules and laws, getting scarce foreign exchange quotas, evading taxes, defaulting on bank loans and rigging the markets etc., we should not be surprised to see the venom against the so called ‘ private profits ’. the policy reforms introduced in pakistan by the nawaz sharif government in 1991 and more importantly followed by that strong citadel of socialist raj – india – were a watershed reflecting the new realities of economic life. these reforms, though quite extensive and diverse, could be summed up for the sake of simplification in three words – liberalization, deregulation and privatization. the results of indian reforms are quite evident before us. during the first 45 years of its independence until 1991, india was hardly able to achieve per capita income growth of 1 percent per year and the incidence of poverty remained persistently high. in the 12 - year period since 1991, india ’ s average per capita income growth has been 4 percent per year, poverty has been declining ever since and has fallen below 25 percent. pakistan, unfortunately, could not follow through these reforms in a continuous and consistent manner despite the fact that both benazir and nawaz sharif governments were fully committed to these reforms. for example, 12 percent shares of ptcl were first sold to the general public in 1993 - 94 and it has been

ignazio visco : inflation, monetary policy and inequalities. some thoughts statement by mr ignazio visco, governor of the bank of italy and governor of the constituency of albania, greece, italy, malta, portugal, san marino and timor - leste, at the 107th meeting of the development committee ( joint ministerial committee of the boards of governors of the bank and the fund on the transfer of real resources to developing countries ), washington dc, 12 april 2023. * * * after more than a year, the world continues to be shaken by the unlawful and unjustified russian aggression to ukraine. we strongly support and admire the ukrainian people for their spirited and courageous resistance, and we commend the world bank group ( wbg ) for its continued support to ukraine, including through the careful assessment of damage and needs. the global economy has shown more resilience than expected. available indicators suggest that the slowdown, though substantial, is smaller than anticipated until a few months ago. still, we are dealing with an extremely uncertain environment, and growth and inflation continue to be adversely affected by the war. recent banking distress episodes and the subsequent tensions, though contained by the appropriate response of domestic authorities, make the outlook for the global economy and financial stability more uncertain and prone to downside risks. these episodes indicate the importance of sound regulation and close monitoring of intermediaries'exposure to, inter alia, interest rate and liquidity risks. this is true not only for banks but also for non - bank financial institutions, which neither benefit from a comparable regulatory and supervisory framework nor have access to central bank emergency liquidity assistance. the response to short - term developments should not come at the expense of the attention to longer - term issues. because of compounded crises, many developing countries are facing setbacks in fighting extreme poverty and achieving shared prosperity. learning losses, insufficient physical and digital investments, subdued productivity growth, and weak institutions are all constraints on output growth, contributing to debt vulnerabilities. the wbg is the key development partner to low - and middle - income countries. over the last years, it has supported the immediate needs of the most vulnerable – badly hit by covid - 19, and the energy and food crises – while maintaining focus on long - term development goals. now it must further integrate global challenges – like climate change, pandemics, fragility, and conflict – into its core development agenda to eradicate extreme