A certain comment on live television by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan raised a lot of eyebrows on Sunday. While addressing a live public engagement session, he described Pakistan’s rise in inflation as a manifestation of the worldwide inflationary trend brought on by the pandemic and claimed that the salaried class is the worst hit.
Voicing his concerns about the situation, the premier remarked that inflation keeps him awake at night.
PM Khan explained that the world is suffering from a supply chain shortfall and some of the world’s leading economic powerhouses like the United Kingdom, United States of America, and Japan are seeing the most of it in the form of record inflationary trends.
Calling it a ‘once-in-a-century pandemic’, he remarked how Pakistan’s performance has been outstanding despite the crises created by the pandemic. Pakistan has functioned effectively and the business sector earned Rs. 980 billion regardless of high import and domestic costs. “The incomes for farmers and those associated with the construction industry have seen a surge while the country has witnessed a major increase in tax collection,” the PM said.
He highlight that the salaried class remains the most impacted by COVID-19 and announced he would meet apex business owners and leaders to discuss increasing their employees’ pay-outs in the near term.
The premier’s remarks come only a day after the news that the current account deficit had ballooned over $9 billion during the first half of the current financial year 2021-22.
The staggering current account deficit had posed a persistent worrisome situation for economic managers and the banking regulator which introduced various strict measures to curb non-essential imports in the country. However, the results are yet to be seen as the import bill has remained out of control since the beginning of the current financial year, with Pakistan’s salaried class bearing the brunt of it.
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