Karachi : Chairman of National Business Group of FPCCI, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said masses are facing the increased burden of inflation which has made their life difficult.

Almost all the sectors save export and remittances are showing negative signs which has raised concerns among the business community, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that masses faced a hike of 8.7 percent in the cost of necessities and services due to the hike in power tariff and other associated issues.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that power tariff hike since decades has not served any purpose except for hitting masses and increasing the cost of doing business.

He noted that inflation in the month of December was 5.7 percent which heartened the masses and related departments but the optimism was short-lived.

The recently released statistics show a 78 percent fall in the portfolio and foreign direct investment while imports are swelling at a high rate as compared to exports.

The trade deficit for the first six months of this fiscal was 2.5 percent as compared to 2.3 percent during the last fiscal however tax collection has improved due to the efforts of Chairman FBR and his team.

The business leader noted that domestic loans which were Rs16.5 trillion in 2018 have jumped to Rs23.7 trillion while $93 billion have increased to $115 billion.