KARACHI Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, Mian Zahid Hussain said that until the prices of electricity, gas, and interest rates are reduced, there is no possibility of increasing production and exports.

The business leader said that the exchange rate is going out of control due to which inflation is increasing again, and the fiscal deficit and current account deficit are also snowballing due to which the value of the currency is depreciating rapidly.

Remittances are also coming down significantly and have decreased by seven percent in July, due to which the deficit is increasing, he added.

He said that now people are hoarding dollars again as it is widely believed that the local currency will depreciate further, and in these circumstances, economic stability will prove to be a challenge for the current caretaker government.

Mian Zahid Hussain further said that the current account deficit reached eight hundred million dollars in the month of July after being in surplus for four months, which is difficult to control because the government has promised IMF to lift the ban on imports.

As a result, after a 30 percent increase in imports in July, they have reached US five billion dollars.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023