The rapid inflation rate has been a significant challenge for the people in Pakistan. Archbishop Joseph Arshad, the leader of the Catholic Church, has recently called for national unity to overcome the crisis they are experiencing in their country.
Pakistan Church Urges National Unity
According to the statistics agency, Pakistan's inflation reached 36.4 and 37.97 percent in April and May. These figures represented the highest rates of inflation seen anywhere in Asia. As a result, the nation would be unable to pay its debts. UCA News reported that inflation reached its highest point in the nation due to rising global commodity costs, problems with supply chains, the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war, currency devaluation, and political upheaval.
Moreover, the country has yet to successfully obtain vital financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Pakistan's yearly economic assessment was released on Thursday, Jun 8, and revealed that the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would only rise by a meager 0.3 percent in 2022-2023. This was due to the agriculture, industrial, and export sectors failing badly due to record high inflation and a slowdown aggravated by the terrible floods that occurred in the previous year.
On the other hand, on Friday, Jun 9, Archbishop Joseph Arshad, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Pakistan, issued an urgent message to all of the country's political leaders, imploring them to put the advancement and prosperity of the nation ahead of their gain. The archbishop remarked that the nation must confront the current economic issues together. Providing essential requirements is an immediate priority, and the current situation reportedly calls for a comprehensive strategy to restore morality in social institutions.
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Inflation in Pakistan
Based on a report from Reuters, the South Asian nation's economic crisis is getting worse due to the bureau's declaration on Thursday, Jun 1, which comes as critical bailout negotiations with the IMF are still going nowhere, and bankruptcy is becoming a real possibility. Since the beginning of this year, inflation has been moving toward a higher level. It is an outcome of the government's decision to implement stringent regulations as part of the fiscal adjustments that the IMF wanted to free up money that had become stuck. Accordingly, the IMF is demanding that specific measures be taken, including the elimination of all subsidies, an increase in the cost of electricity, implementing a market-based currency rate, and imposing new levies to produce additional income for a supplementary budget. However, this investment is necessary for Pakistan to access other bilateral and international funds.
As per Aljazeera, the administration led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is scheduled to publish its annual budget. Despite this, the nation's growth prediction for the year, which will finish on Friday, Jun 30, has already been reduced from 5 percent to 0.3 percent. Furthermore, the mismanagement of Pakistan's finances for many years has brought the country's economy to its breaking point, further compounded by a worldwide oil crisis and disastrous floods that hit the country in 2022. Pakistan's problems are reportedly compounded by both the severe economic and political upheavals that the country is experiencing.
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