Lahore, JUL 28 /DNA/ – The Ferozepur Road Industrial Association (FRIA) senior vice chairman Shahbaz Aslam has said that the most serious challenge to the economy for the government in the current fiscal year would be inflation, because it is already hitting economy due to continuous raise in oil prices and depreciation of local currency.

Shahbaz Aslam warned the high cost of doing business has been hurting the economic growth, as the inflation rate bounced back in concluding month, hurting the trade and industry the most, who faced the brunt of a staggering 520% increase in gas prices.

Quoting the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, he said that the Consumer Price Index surged to 21.2% last month compared to a year ago. The increase was more than market expectations and has lessened the prospects for a cut in the interest rates.

This reading, the first announced by the PBS after the recently concluded International Monetary Fund (IMF) talks, in which the global lender also cut the inflation forecast for Pakistan to 22.8%, may strengthen the IMF’s view of keeping the policy rate unchanged until core inflation starts easing out when the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets.

The FRIA SVC predicted that inflation would remain high and may even increase further due to market frictions caused by relative demand and supply gap of essential items, exchange rate depreciation and recent upward adjustment of administered prices of petrol and diesel.

The trader leader called for keeping check on government expenditure and high cost of debt servicing to contain budget deficit, as the Pakistan’s federal budget deficit projection has been revised to history’s highest to over Rs6 trillion, highlighting the unending fiscal woes that have pushed the country into a debt trap despite putting additional burden of billions of rupees on industry in the current fiscal year.

Expressing serious concern over the high jump in country’s budget deficit, Shahbaz Aslam said the revision has been made in light of agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which exposed the massive underreporting of expenditures at the time of budget presentation by the finance ministry.

This is a highly unsustainable level and has already pushed the country into a situation where debt restructuring seems to be the only viable option. He maintained that the failure to reform the tax system and increase revenue collection is a major factor behind heavy domestic and foreign borrowings by the government.
In view of the low level of available FX reserves, the debt management strategy of Pakistan may have to be revisited, to ensure the stability of Pakistani rupee and restoration of international capital markets’ confidence in the economy of Pakistan.

Shahbaz Aslam expressed surprise at the impact of the gas price hike, stating that it has surpassed market expectations.