Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has stressed upon the government to take urgent measures to control the rising inflation which has again shot up to over 11 percent mainly due to hike in prices of electricity, gas, POL products and food items.

During a meeting with businessmen, Zahid Maqbool, President, ICCI said that re-surging inflation is making life tougher for the common man and at the same time causing great slump in business activities.

He said growth of trade and industry is directly linked with healthy purchasing power of consumers as business activities boom in an environment of thriving middle class but go into recession when prices start rising with consumers income remaining static.

He said that particularly skyrocketing food inflation is feeding into general inflation and this situation could threaten the government’s macroeconomic stabilisation plans. He said due to high cost of living, people are now finding it very difficult to meet basic needs of life and government should devise some strategies to lessen the woes of common man.

Businessmen were very apprehensive over some reports that government was planning to make another increase in the prices of electricity and POL products from April 1. They cautioned the government to refrain from considering any such move as it will trigger new wave of price hike creating more problems for majority of people and businesses.

They said government should take steps to counter the problem of water scarcity with conservation, storage and better management and drainage of water. This will improve the production and supply of food items and help in addressing food inflation, they opined.

Zahid Maqbool also urged government to launch serious austerity drive and make drastic cuts in all wasteful & non-development expenditures to spare funds for providing some relief to the overburdened people.

He observed that country direly needs to create a conducive environment for promotion of a strong middle class, which will play vital role in encouraging heavy investment, triggering fast growth of trade & industry and stimulating the overall economy.