CORONAVIRUS CRISIS HAS SHAKEN RETAIL SECTOR, RECOVERY CAN TAKE YEARS: MIAN ZAHID HUSSAIN.

FPCCI's Businessmen Panel SVP, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said that the services sector serving tens of millions of people shrinking at a fast pace. The crisis has shaken the resilient retail sector while the revival of some sectors can take years. Economies centred around the service sector may recover sooner than the economies based on industry or agriculture, he said. Mian Zahid Hussain said that the pandemic has damaged almost every sector including tourism, transport and hospitality and other sub-sectors.

Talking to the business community he said that the services sector has collapsed with the coronavirus-led lockdown causing a historic spike in the layoffs and reinforcing fears of a deep recession. The noted that our services sector continues to post a worst-ever drop in business activity which can be described as a complete standstill. The former minister noted that the economic damage caused by the virus is yet to be ascertained by our authorities but it is safe to assume that it has contracted GDP substantially and added trouble in the lives of the millions which were already reeling under problems, he added. He informed that Pakistan's resilient and the unorganized retail sector enjoys being the third-largest sector following agriculture and manufacturing.

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