President Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW), Dr. Murtaza Mughal said on Saturday that there is contradiction in important statistics presented in the economic survey and ground realities. In a statement issued here, he said that the toxic policies of the former government, the 2022 floods, the Russia-Ukraine war, political instability, and the delay in getting loans from the IMF have been blamed for the economic situation, but the government has not taken any responsibility for the situation. Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that the revenue shortfall has increased in the current government as compared to the previous regime, which was not mentioned.

The government has claimed that industrial sector has shrunk by 2.9 percent, while in fact, the output of major industries alone has decreased by 8.1 percent in the last ten months, and LSM was down by 25 percent in the month of March alone, he added. The PEW President said that the average inflation has been stated as eighteen percent, which has remained above 30 percent. It has been claimed that the circular debt was 2.4 trillion rupees in June 2022, which has now been stopped at 2.5 trillion rupees, but the earlier statements of the top officials say something else.

If the circular debt is not increasing, why did electricity continue to be expensive, he questioned. Murtaza Mughal said that the ban on imports has caused irreparable damage to the country's economy. In April 2022, the foreign exchange reserves were 10.08 billion dollars, which in May 2023 have reduced to 4.09 billion dollars, and if the import bans are relaxed, this is not even a fortnight, he observed. Playing with the value of the dollar has affected the market and public confidence, remittances have decreased by $3.4 billion from July to April.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP