Muhammad Ahmed Waheed President and Saif ur Rahman
Khan Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) have
shown great concerns over the rising inflation that would put unbearable burden
on the common man and threaten the stagnant economy, therefore, they called
upon the government to take urgent measures to bring down high inflation in
order to save the people and economy from further troubles. They expressed
these views during a meeting with Engr. Daroo Khan Achakzai, President,
Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry. Abdul Waheed, Vice
President FPCCI was also present at the occasion.

ICCI Office Bearers said that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation on
year-on-year (YoY) basis witnessed an increase of 12.7 percent in November
2019 that was a record increase in the last 9 years and stressed that government
should focus on reducing the cost of doing business besides evolving a
comprehensive price control mechanism. They said that heavy taxation, hike in
oil prices and significant increase in electricity and gas tariffs have pushed up the
inflation to record level of 12.7 percent in November 2019, which should be a
cause of concern for policy makers. They said that the inflation was on the rise at
a time when the economy was in a stagnation mode, which has made the life of
common man more miserable. They said that shrinking purchasing power of
consumers caused by high inflation was taking a heavy toll on the business
activities due to which businesses were suffering losses and unemployment was
increasing.

Engr. Daroo Khan Achakzai, President and Abdul Waheed, Vice President,
Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry said that one of the
causes of high inflation was high interest rate. They emphasized that SBP should
bring down high interest rate as its tight monetary policy has not been able to
control the prices of food items that have witnessed sharp increase. They said
that high interest rates have also affected the industrial expansion besides
hurting economic growth prospects. They said that over 12 percent inflation has
become a serious threat to the economy and urged that government should take
war footing measures to reduce it. They further stressed that government should
rationalize taxes, decrease key interest rate, reduce exorbitant rates of utilities
and POL prices in order to reduce the cost of doing business that would lead to
significant decline in inflation and provide great relief to the common man
besides giving boost to business and industrial activities.