Country cannot recover from fiscal crisis without bailout: Asad Umar

Country faces $35 billion deficit, says Umar

Finance Minister Asad Umar on Tuesday clarified to the Lower House that the country cannot recover from the current fiscal crisis without securing a bailout.

“We had said even before elections, we need a bailout,” he added.



He informed lawmakers that Pakistan faces a deficit of $35 billion and the rupee's value has depreciated, as a result, the country has sought foreign loans.

“The current account deficit was $25 billion when the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) left [in 2013]. In December 2017, Miftah Ismail was the finance minister. The rupee was depreciating and the government’s expenditures were increasing at a faster pace,” he said.

"We approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and our friends," said Umar and added that the economy needs support as the budget deficit has increased by more than Rs900 billion.

"The recent agreement with Saudi Arabia was worth $9 billion over three years."



The finance minister also claimed that any IMF bailout would be the last for the country, adding that Pakistan would cooperate with China to take CPEC into the next phase and reduce the trade deficit.

"We will give priority to the export industry and have reduced taxes.”

Not sending troops to Yemen

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi denied reports that any Israeli aircraft had landed in Pakistan and spent hours at the Islamabad airport.

He warned that such reports were aimed at harming the country.

Speaking on the behalf of the opposition, Shehbaz accepted the foreign minister’s explanation and said he takes the explanation by Qureshi at face value.

During his speech, Qureshi also clarified the Saudi economic package for Pakistan did not carry any conditionality or strings and rejected the notion that Pakistan was sending troops to Yemen.