People will have to put up with inflation, says Dawood

LAHORE: Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile Industry, Production and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood said on Saturday Pakistan’s economy is improving.

Speaking to the media here, he said the depreciation of the rupee leads to rise in inflation. The people will have to put up with inflation for some time, he added.

Dawood said the country’s trade deficit is also seeing decline because of the government’s efforts.

The advisor didn’t answer a question about import of donkeys from China, saying it would become an issue if he replied to the question.

Earlier, on March 17, the advisor had said Pakistan would sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China during PM Imran Khan’s next visit to Beijing.

Dawood said only option to promote industry in academia linkages and need to move steadily towards modernization of textile sector to maintain our presence in the international textile markets.

He said government is working on a comprehensive strategy based on value addition in invigorate the entire cotton chain in order to double the textile exports. He said the strategy formation was afoot to reduce industrial production cost.

“The government has no funds, hence the policy for granting subsidies has been done away with.”

Recently, Dawood said decreasing imports have saved the country an amount of two billion dollars. The trade deficit also goes down by two billion dollars in comparison to the previous year, the adviser said.