IMF conditions hitting businesses: Humayun Akhtar

KARACHI: The International Monetary Fund’s prescription of hiking interest rates, taxes and power tariffs in the country will be counterproductive for the manufacturing sector and economy on the whole, a former commerce minister and businessman said.

In a meeting with bed linen exporters, the former minister, Humayun Akhtar Khan, said the interest rates have been cut globally to encourage businesses while in Pakistan, the situation is exactly otherwise.

“The economy is sustaining on the IMF loans and the government is blindly following its dictations,” he said. Akhtar said that the foreign direct investment (FDI) must be channelised into export-based industries, not just in telecom and power sectors, to strengthen the economy.