HERE is a quick round-up of the economic vulnerabilities opening up ahead of us. Please don’t panic when you read this. Pakistan has faced worse before and emerged from it.

The price of oil for Pakistan has surpassed the historic peak set in 2008 this week. The two benchmarks that Pakistan uses to price its imports — Dubai and Oman crude — both crossed the $150 threshold in recent days. Dubai crude fell to around $120 after this (according to oilprice.com data) while Oman stayed elevated.

The last fuel price adjustment on Friday, March 13, held prices steady with the government agreeing to absorb the impact of the price rises that have come subsequent to the Rs55 per litre hike of March 6. According to the directive from the Prime Minister’s Office, the cost of maintaining these caps is estimated at Rs23 billion for the seven days running from March 14 to 20 alone.

That’s a lot of money; Rs23bn just to maintain a price cap for seven days. And the price hike peak came after these caps were announced. So by this Friday either they’ll have to announce an even bigger allocation for the following week, or announce another massive price increase. How massive, you might ask? Well last Friday there was supposed to be a hike of Rs75 and Rs50 per litre each for diesel and petrol respectively. That’s on top of the Rs55 per litre increase already applied on March 6. If they decide to unwind these caps now, and pass on whatever price increases the market has seen since last........

© Dawn