KARACHI: All Karachi Industrial Alliance chief and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said the economy and inflation are growing simultaneously.
Policymakers should focus on economic development but they should also do something about governance issues and inflation and which has made it difficult for the majority to run their kitchens, he while talking to the business community,. Hussain said that rising prices were impacting the cost of living, the cost of doing business, and every other facet of the economy.
The veteran business leader said that with lower inflation, employment increases and consumers have more money to buy goods and services, and the economy benefits and grows. He said that the electricity bills of the last month were double and triple than normal which must be probed as it has put additional burden on the masses. IMF policies and coronavirus has damaged the economy but now it is improving to some extent but the authorities have failed to contain the inflation resulting in frustration.
He said that situation in Afghanistan, increased imports, exchange rate erosion despite remittances, loans, and stable forex reserves, rising current account deficit, and some other issues are haunting the business community. The government has announced to remain in the IMF programme but the lender has not reacted to it and relations between both are not excellent which has also resulted in some uncertainty, he informed.
Hussain said that the dollar traded at Rs152 which is not at Rs166 which has generated inflation as nothing has been done to control the dollar. The central bank cannot take strict measures to control inflation as it will reduce the pace of economic recovery and increase unemployment which is laudable.”