Pak's effort to curb trade deficit leads to rising unemployment: Report

Pakistan’s effort to curb trade deficit by restricting imports is rapidly morphing into a bigger crisis of rising unemployment, according to a report.

“An increasing number of businesses are either scaling back operations or shutting down production mainly for one reason: the unavailability of imported raw materials. 

Curbing imports of raw materials to improve the trade balance is tantamount to cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face,” according to the Dawn.

According to noted economist Hafiz A Pasha, the number of unemployed people will increase by over 2 to 8 million by the end of 2022-23. Given that the labour force consists of