- When Pakistan’s annual inflation rate hit 11.5% in November, the statistics office put a number on a phenomenon that was already painfully clear to the poor and the salaried middle-class voters who carried Prime Minister Imran Khan to power three years ago.
- Now the government is preparing to double down on the pain with a belt-tightening budget of tax hikes and spending cuts required to release a $1 billion tranche of International Monetary Fund bailout cash.
- The impact has also been felt in the business sector through high energy prices and raw materials costs as well as the recent sharp rise in interest rates.
Pakistanis squeezed by inflation face more pain from tax hikes
