Imports reduced after govt trade measures: Miftah

Finance minister says reduction in imports has helped create balance between imports, exports and remittances

ISLAMABAD:

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said on Wednesday that measures taken by the current government to correct the fundaments of trade has resulted in the imports being reduced.

During a news presser in Islamabad, the minister stated that the reduction in imports has helped create a balance between imports, exports and remittances.

Miftah highlighted that the trade deficit was $48 billion and that the current account deficit stood at $17 billion during the last fiscal year, which the country could not afford.

He said that an agreement had been signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) categorically stating that the government will implement it.

The minister added that the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank had also opened their financing for Pakistan following the agreement with the IMF.

Moreover, some friendly countries also assured to help Pakistan meet its financing gap, Miftah stated.

Listing details of the upcoming assistance, he claimed that one friendly country pledged to provide oil worth $1.2 billion on deferred payment.

Another country expressed interest to invest in Pakistan Stock Market whilst a third showed interest to provide gas worth $2.4 billion to Pakistan on deferred payment, he said.

Read Pakistan faced Rs5.1 tr default risk at end of PTI tenure: Miftah

Furthermore, another country is to deposit $2 billion into the State Bank of Pakistan, and a fifth country is set to provide two billion Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).

The finance minister said that they wanted to sell out Balloki and Haveli Bahadur Shah Power Plants.

“The economy is on the right trajectory, there has been improvement in tax collection. We will enhance tax to GDP ratio and reduce the budget deficit during the current fiscal year,” Miftah said, confident that the issue of inflation would be tackled in the next two to three months.

In response to a question regarding the record-breaking incline of the US dollar against the Pakistani rupee, the minister stated that the dollar had appreciated against other currencies of the world as well.

“However, the recent dip of the rupee against the dollar was due to the political situation in the country,” the finance minister said, adding that the currency would move towards normalization after improvement in the political situation over the next few days.