The hard choices

Emmanuel Macron and Imran Khan have one thing in common and plenty adrift in between. They have difficult decisions to take to fix economies that went south due to bad governance. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, both men have run into trouble.

Macron had to back down on fuel price rises, pay freezes and a raft of measures designed to both fix the economy and prepare for a fossil fuel-less society. It came at the cost of appeasing a yellow jacket and apparently leaderless social outburst. Macron had other ideas of his foes but acted in due humility most of which came from heady ambitions of being the leader-in-voice of Europe. That the general mass were enraptured by his rhetoric and bemused by his action is not a surprise. That's where today's politics fails because it doesn't tell the whole story. Indeed, apart from the Conservative Party in the Uk that promised hard times no election campaign really has painted anything but a rosy picture.

Khan is in a similar predicament. In spite of targeting five thousand of the richest to wean out payable tax, raising gas and fuel tax, devalue the rupee and separate tax policy and tax implementation he hasn't brought good news either. The media are really going for him as he negotiated a $ 6.7 billion Saudi loan and wooed $ 6.0 trillion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help payback previous loans. And Khan was willing to steer clear of the Khashoggi incident in the middle of all the furor-something the Saudis aren't likely to overlook. These are figures the common man doesn't understand as they look for their next meal. The fact that it hurts the pocket isn't acceptable either. But these are just some of the hard choices one has to make. China was the last stop for seeking dollars to prop up the economy for the man who promised austerity but chooses to take a helicopter to work. Importantly, Chinese investment in Baluchistan is a vital cog in the One Belt, One Road policy and makes up 6.0 per cent of Pakistan's loan. The ire comes from the United States the bulk of IMFs fund origins and the US isn't taking kindly to its money being used to pay back Chinese debt.

Khan, Macron and the Italian government swept into power on platforms of reforms, anti-corruption drives and sensible spend. All are facing issues with even the Italians coming to odds with the EU on spending budgets to kick-start the economy only to hear they can't cross EU deficit rules.

Come January Bangladesh will have a new government that has a host of issues to deal with. The deficit is burgeoning, banks are in the red and infrastructure costs way out of control. Whatever the outcome, delays in action will exacerbate the issues. And we're no Argentina that can negotiate a $ 67 trillion IMF loan and host the G20 summit.

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