Finance Minister breaks silence over default news amid record rupee devaluation
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ISLAMABAD – Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday rubbished the malicious rumours about Pakistan's possible default.
In a series of tweets, he said these rumours were not only completely false but also belied the facts. The minister said forex reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan had increasing and were almost $1billion higher than four weeks ago despite making all external due payments on time.
He said foreign commercial banks have started extending facilities to Pakistan. Ishaq Dar said the negotiations with IMF were about to conclude and “we expect to sign Staff Level Agreement with IMF by next week”. The minister said all economic indicators are slowly moving in the right direction.
His statement comes as the Pakistani rupee slumped to all-time low against the US dollar. The local currency lost 6.66% against the US dollar in the interbank market, settling at 285.09 as compared to yesterday’s Rs266.11
