ISLAMABAD: Despite paying back huge foreign loan worth $10.6 billion in ayear, Pakistan’s economy starts to recover back, media report has revealed.
Economic Affairs Minister Hammad Azhar has said the current account deficitdeclined by 64pc during the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year(FY20), adding that the primary budget balance witnessed a surplus of Rs285billion during the same period.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the minister claimed that theeconomy has now started picking up as the indicators, including investmentinflows, foreign exchange reserves, revenue collection, current accountbalance, trade balance, ease of doing business, Public Sector DevelopmentProgramme spending, stock market performance and inflation, were showingpositive signs.
He said that the total foreign investment in Pakistan increased by awhopping 137pc during 1QFY20. “Pakistan has witnessed a positive foreignportfolio investment of $350 million in this quarter, which is the firstpositive inflow after a gap of three years,” he added.
The minister said that foreign exchange reserves, which were constantlyreducing by $500 million per month since 2017, have been stabilised despitethe fact that the government had made record payments to debt servicing.“The government broke all records of paying off the foreign loans; thegovernment paid $10.5 billion worth of loans last year and it would repeatthe same this year.”
On the revenue front, he said the number of tax filers has increased by55pc and the domestic revenues have surged by 25pc during the first fourmonths of FY20. “There has been a growth of 15pc in the overall revenuesdespite the fact that imports into the country are following a decliningtrend.”
He said the government had achieved 90pc revenue collection target set forthe first quarter by collecting Rs960 billion taxes.
On a query, Azhar clarified that no employee of the Federal Board ofRevenue (FBR) would be fired during reforms of the important institution.
The minister said the circular debt, which had mounted to Rs1,200 billionfrom Rs450 billion, mainly during the end of the previous government’stenure, was now mounting only by Rs12 billion per month compared to Rs38billion. “The piling up of circular debt will be reduced to zero byDecember 2020.”
Read Top Stories
He said the country had also made a significant improvement in ease ofdoing business by climbing down the index by 28 points, adding steps weretaken to further improve the doing business score.
He said the stock market in the country grew by 6,500 points since Augustwhile it surged by 1,500 points only in last three days, which was anothersign of economic recovery and development.
On exports, he said garment exports grew by 36pc, rice by 52pc, andfootwear by 54pc respectively during the first quarter.
He said measures were also being taken to check inflation, which hadincreased due to the devaluation of currency. However, he clarified thatthe inflation during the first 13 months of the PTI government was stilllow at 8pc compared with the previous governments of Pakistan People’sParty and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, during which it increased by 21.5pcand 8.4pc, respectively.
The minister said Pakistan was coming out of economic difficulties, asinvestment and business opportunities were constantly being created in thecountry.
Azhar congratulated the government for achieving a huge success in theKarkey case in which Pakistan managed to avoid a penalty of $1.2 billion.
