(Oct 17, 2022)
Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday expressed concern over the weakness of the rupee against the dollar.
The people and many business sectors have breathed a sigh of relief due to the increase in the value of the rupee, but the exporters are worried, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that with the improvement in the value of the rupee, the trend of using imported goods is developing among the people, which should be stopped by increasing the taxes.
Talking to the business community the veteran business leader said that according to IMF estimates, the global growth rate which was six percent in 2021 will fall to 3.2 percent this year, while it will fall to 2.7 percent in 2023, while average inflation will be twenty percent which will cause huge problems.
Inflation will remain up to 20% globally, but in Pakistan, it can reach up to 30% which will make life difficult for the people, he added.
Mian Zahid Hussain further said that most of the countries of the world are dependent on America for their economy, whose growth rate is likely to be one percent, which may affect Pakistan’s exports.
He said that currently, economists all over the world are worried about how to avoid recession if interest rates are increased to control prices.
The global economy is facing problems like inflation, rising interest rates, rising debt, destruction of the housing market, and the war between Russia and Ukraine, while the oil exporting countries are trying to increase their profits.
Apart from these problems, Pakistan is to face destruction by floods, climate change, and political instability, so the conditions here could be worse than in other countries.
He asked the authorities to take prompt decisions to tackle these problems on a war footing.
