October 19, 2016
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said the stake holders have not accepted the steps taken by the government to regulate the property market.
Investment in the property market is falling to an extent that it has started shrinking economy, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that property market has become dormant while many expatriates have lost interest in the realty market which has resulted in reduced remittances.
The home remittances dropped by 5.4 percent in the first quarter is shocking as the country cannot afford a drop of $267 million during these times when investment and exports are falling.
Pakistan is heavily depended on the remittances but policy makers continue to attribute the fall the economic slowdown in the oil producing countries without taking pain to ascertain the reasons.
The veteran business leader said that fall in the remittances will widen the trade deficit which has already broadened to almost thirty percent in the first quarter amounting to over seven billion dollars.
He informed that country fetched FDI amounting to $ 249 million during the first quarter compared to $403 million during the first quarter of last financial year depicting a decrease $154 million or 38 percent.
Exports of services witnessed a decline of over 31 percent in the first two months of the current fiscal. The exports of services fell to $ 712.75 million in Jul-Aug from $ 1,040.21 million recorded in the same months of the last fiscal which call for some corrective actions that cannot be delayed. While on the other hand export manager despite taking actions to increase export abusing the critics. If he can’t increase export as promised he should resign, he demanded.
