Overseas Pakistanis willing to invest billions
LAHORE: Dr. Mubasher Chaudhry, a well-known American businessman of Pakistani origin and head of the American Democratic Party, said on Wednesday that overseas Pakistanis are ready to invest billions of dollars in Pakistan if given proper support.
In a meeting with the Pakistan Business Journalists Association at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Chaudhry noted that relations between Pakistan and the United States are improving and there is a need to increase trade.
He added that political stability is inevitable for economic stability, and all institutions must be on the same page to improve the country’s economic conditions. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government increased the national debt by 18.1 trillion rupees during its 44-month rule, a threshold crossed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government in just 15 months. The central bank has not yet compiled the debt data for July.
Imran Khan’s government added another trillion rupees between August 2018 and March 2022. And now the PDM government has added Rs 18.5 trillion in just 15 months. From 1 September 2018 to the end of March 2022, the PTI government increased the national debt by an average of 14.5 billion rupees per day, more than double the average increase of 5.6 billion rupees per day during the PML-N period.
Now the PDM government has increased the debt stock by an average of Rs 41 billion per day. At the end of the PTI government’s term, the total national debt stood at 44.4 trillion rupees, which was 83.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) before the restructuring of the economy. After the rebasing, the public debt decreased by 15% of GDP, but there was no decrease in absolute value.
Published in EDP BLOGS on August 17, 2023.
