Trade deficit may touch $25 billion mark: PBIF chief

President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), Mian Zahid Hussain has said that Prime Minister constituted a committee to improve external sector in September and directed it to furnish report in one week but so far nothing has been done in this direction which is amazing. He said trade deficit of the current fiscal can touch the mark of US 25 billion dollars.
Falling exports, reduced investment and sliding remittances have pushed trade deficit to US 9.3 billion dollars in the first four months of the current fiscal and if the trend continues the deficit will touch mark of US 27.9 billion dollars by the end of the current fiscal, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that exports dropped by 6.3 percent in the first four months while imports increased by 8.6 percent due to absence of serious efforts to cut the import bill. The import target of US 45.2 billion will not manageable unless serious efforts are initiated as the economic corridor may jack up the bill by 11 percent, he said. Mian Zahid Hussain said that exports were above US 24 billion dollars when the current administration came to power, since then exports are dropping to touch mark of US 20.8 billion dollars in the last fiscal.