Economy paying dearly for political instability: LCCI chief

The economy of Pakistan is paying heavy cost of political instability and chaos-like situation. The country has already suffered a loss of $120 billion due to war against terrorism during the last two decades and the country is not in a position to bleed more due to political adventures.
LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid in a statement on Friday said that prolonged political instability and protests have aggressively harmed economic growth of the country. The political stability is the major tool for economic development and sustainable economic growth is not possible without political stability in the country, he said.
"Political uncertainty is overlapping major issues like rupee devaluation, miserable balance of trade, nose-diving stock market, unimpressive annual GDP growth rate of 5.28 percent, industrial growth rate of just 2.47 percent, unemployment rate of 5.9 percent current account deficit, huge debt-to-GDP ratio and discouraging ranking of 147 in ease of doing business that should be a matter of concern for all," he added.
He said a week of stalled economic activity costs the country $500 million or $2 billion per month and a weak economy like Pakistan cannot afford to lose even one million dollar loss to exports. Such activities would not only tarnish the image of country in the eyes of international community but would also hinder economic growth, he said.
The LCCI chief said the leadership of all political parties should join hands for strengthening the economy. He said they should settle issues in Parliament instead of disturbing the business activities and public life through holding sit-ins and rallies. Malik Tahir Javaid said that political systems with vision for future play major role in economic stability of a country.
He said all political parties should have a wing that should comprise social, economic and financial experts. He also called for controlling rising trend in dollar price and feared that surge would result in stagnant growth as it would hit all the important sectors of economy therefore precautionary measures should be taken on war footing to control this trend.
He said recent surge in the prices of the greenback would not only jack-up the cost of doing business but would also erode the profit margins. The State Bank needs to ascertain the factors weakening the value of rupee and check the possibilities of undue speculations and malpractices in the operation of foreign exchange markets in Pakistan, he said.