BRUSSELS:

Pakistan, having a troubling history with interventions by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to profligate spending and budget deficits financed by domestic money creation and foreign borrowing that result in balance of payment crises, suggests that the fundamental problems behind these crises have never been corrected. The recurrent nature of these crises, in part, may be attributed to the planning horizons of the government in power.

If the horizon is fairly short, confined to the government's expected term, the only policies adopted will be those whose realised benefits exceed realised costs during that term. Benefits and costs occurring after the government's term are totally ignored. This behaviour, which we call myopic, does not maximise the long-run well-being of

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