Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday that the record trade deficit of over $5 billion recorded this month (December) showed that the country had ‘collapsed’ economically, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

In a statement, Shehbaz Sharif said that the trade deficit of over $20 billion just in the first five months of the current financial year (FY) was a clear-cut proof of an imbalance between the country’s imports and exports. 

He went on to say that the fresh statistics showed that the US dollar was exerting pressure on Pakistani rupee, thus causing the latter’s price to plummet further. “Now each dollar is equal to Rs180; inflation is increasing by the day, which is not a good sign for the country at all,” he remarked.

“The country, instead of moving forward, is going backwards. The economy is in reverse gear,” Shehbaz said, and added that the levy of 17 percent additional general sales tax (GST) on different items recently will further increase the price hike.

“Elsewhere in the world, the GST is slashed to keep inflation at bay,” the PML-N president said, and regretted that here, unfortunately, opposite was the case.

He asked the government to quit rather than playing with the nation’s future.