Commendable Start: Now for the Finish

Avoiding a Crisis
The Pathfinder Foundation (PF) commends the Treasury and Central Bank for the policy measures introduced recently. This has prevented an external payments crisis. Without remedial action, the country would not have been able to meet its debt obligations and/or finance essential imports within a short period of time. There is considerable evidence from around the world that payments crises have a devastating impact on living standards and results in political instability. The poor and vulnerable bear a disproportionate share of the pain. The actions taken are, therefore, necessary and unavoidable. The PF has called for the use of the full range of macroeconomic instruments to tackle the imbalance in the external account. It, therefore, welcomes the measures that have been taken by the authorities. They are courageous and have improved the prospects of stabilizing the economy and securing a more favourable medium-term outlook.