LAHORE: Trade imbalance and rising foreign debts are reversing the benefits of hard-earned gains and situation would be more critical if immediate controlling measures are not taken.
In a statement, LCCI President Malik Tahir Javed, Senior Vice-President Khawaja Khawar Rasheed and Vice-President Zeshan Khalil said the country made a good economic progress in recent past but swelling trade deficit and debts make a reverse gear and are posing serious challenges to the economy.
They said that, according to a report, the trade deficit has widened by $12.13billion in the first four months of current fiscal year despite 10 percent growth in exports during the same period. The balance of trade was widened by 31.24 percent to deficit of 12.13 during July–October 2017/2018 compared to the deficit of $9.24billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The LCCI office-bearers said the issue of huge trade imbalance could only be tackled by enhancing exports and all other ways like imposition of Regulatory Duty are wastage of time. They said Pakistan’s most favorite export markets have been Europe, North America and Gulf. The exporters need to look for new markets in Central Asia and South towards Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia. They said that Central African republics have on the whole around $70billion imports whereas Pakistan’s exports to them are negligible. They said that Pakistan should particularly sign Free Trade Agreements with Central Asian Republics and the countries in Gulf, Indonesia and Malaysia. They said Pakistani exports are also suffering due to skyrocketing input cost along with the mind boggling tax regime therefore these issues should also be resolved with due consultation.
They further stated that reportedly external debt of Pakistan has increased to 82.981 USD billion in the second quarter of 2017 from 75.747 USD billion in the first quarter of 2017. They said that debt servicing is eating up a major part of fiscal budget therefore policy of ‘acquire debt’ should be abandoned in the larger interest of the country.
