(July 29, 2020)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, FPCCI’s Businessmen Panel Sr. Vice Chairman, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said the world is heading towards economic famine.
Globally, around 35 percent businesses will go bankrupt due to the pandemic which will be a great challenge to their economics, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the impact of the virus in Pakistan is on retreat but it is in full swing in many developed nations which are considered very important to the global economic system.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that it has been estimated that despite spending trillions 57 percent of the US companies will be insolvent sooner or later.
The US will be followed by Brazil where 45 percent companies will be closed down, 43 percent companies in the UK will become non-existent while 41 percent companies in Spain and 20 percent companies in China will be out of business in 2020 and 2021.
The former minister noted that reduced interest rates, packages, and incentives will not change the situation as it will need out of the box solutions otherwise the economy of developed nations will suffer leading to a global crisis.
He said that the situation is very different in Pakistan where the corona-related losses were not very high and now situation is improving resulting in improved confidence among investors.
He said that the government predicted a 7.78 percent fall in the Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM)Â during the last fiscal but it can jump to 10.43 percent as data is awaited for this sector.
Now the LSM is improving as yarn, clothing, iron and steel, cement, petroleum, and auto sectors are reporting improvement in production.
Implementation of housing projects recently announced by the government will infuse a new life in cement, steel and other construction industry while reduced interest rates will boost auto and other sectors, he said.
