President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), Mian Zahid Hussain, has said that economy is growing at a fast pace but threats and vulnerabilities have also increased which must be tackled. Lauding the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his team to boost GDP to 5.3 percent, highest in a decade, he said that GDP can grow to six percent by the next year for which some steps are required as current account deficit which remained USD2.5 billion has been projected to climb to USD8.5 billion by the end of the year.

He said that widening current account deficit can be attributed to import of machinery for CPEC, falling exports, dwindling investment and reduced remittances. Widening deficit is a grave threat to the economy which will eat up the foreign exchange reserves and leave government with only option to secure more foreign loans therefore this trend must be reversed, he demanded.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017