KARACHI: Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan and President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), Mian Zahid Hussain has said the report of the reputed British publication The Economist that Pakistan will go bankrupt at the beginning of 2024 is very worrying.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the analysis of The Economist is considered very important globally.
The organisation has published a 43-page report on Pakistan which is enough to open the eyes of everyone including politicians, judiciary and elites.
He said that the report stated that protests over inflation and scarcity of basic necessities of life will continue while political instability will also last. The report also stated that the intervention in the policy-making process will continue while the government will continue its efforts to obtain loans from various sources.
The government will also increase the price of gas and electricity to increase its revenue.
According to The Economist, inflation will not go away, and the central bank will have to hike interest rates at least twice, which will break all previous records.
The economic and strategic partnership between China and Pakistan will continue, but the loans from China will decrease. China will also ask Pakistan to start a new IMF programme to avoid financial insolvency.
The tension between Pakistan and India will continue while relations with the US will not improve because Pakistan’s stand on the Ukraine war is not what the US wants.
Similarly, problems will continue to arise in relations with Afghanistan. The report stated that Pakistan will try improved relations with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates so that it can take loans to overcome the problems and shore up its foreign exchange reserves.
Mian Zahid Hussain added that this report showed that further delay in economic reforms in Pakistan could prove to be extremely dangerous. The world is not ready to give more loans to Pakistan.
In order to survive, privatisation of failed government institutions, elimination of losses in the electricity and gas sector, finding alternatives to imports, agricultural reforms and an increase in exports have become inevitable for Pakistan. If political anarchism is not eradicated, the people will have to suffer and we will have to regret inaction forever.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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