Razak Dawood blames business community for growing inflation

KARACHI: Advisor to the prime minister on commerce Abdul Razak Dawood Saturday expressed that it was the business community which was responsible for Pakistan's growing inflation.

The prime minister's aide said "the business community is causing the rise of inflation in the country" and urged them to do their part to curb it. 

“We [Pakistanis] do not possess a global vision,” he said while addressing at the Edible Oil Conference.

“People criticise our government and ask what good have we done by increasing exports by four to five percent. I assure you, we are moving towards stability and this is the last installment we have taken from the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” he said.

Emphasising the need to curb imports, Dawood said that the country needs to get rid of the ‘import based’ economy to move forward.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on January 7 said during the first quarter of current fiscal year FY-20, Pakistan's economy moved progressively along the adjustment path, but inflation reached the highest level during the last seven years.

Pakistan’s economic growth is unlikely to meet the target of 4 percent this fiscal, due to soft trends in agriculture and manufacturing production, the central bank said, advising the government to address structural vulnerabilities to put the economy on a sustainable growth trajectory.